For every living being on this planet, death is the greatest mystery of them all.
The ways that we experience death, celebrate life, and wonder about what’s next are part of what makes us human— yet it’s also a subject we often push aside. At the Field Museum’s newest exhibition, you can explore perspectives on death and life through culture, science, and art.
Come away with a profound new perspective on life’s most universal experience.
Exhibition Highlights:
- Encounter a replica of a whale’s body on the ocean floor providing nutrients for nearby organisms
- See a full-sized ofrenda made by Chicago artist Norma Rios-Sierra
- Celebrate life with interactive multimedia art and soundscapes
- Ponder the meaning of death with philosophical questions on touchscreen polls
Image slideshow
When a whale dies, it eventually sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where it becomes the foundation of a new ecosystem, like the one seen here. This 10-foot-long diorama shows how the whale’s body serves as nutrients and supports hundreds of species for decades. Artwork by Blue Rhino Studios
In Ghana, people honor the dead by burying them in coffins that symbolize something about their life. This 9-foot canoe-shaped coffin would have been made for a fisherman, and the connection to water can also symbolize their passage to the afterlife.
Tardigrades are one of the most resistant creatures known to science. They’ve been found alive in volcanoes, the deep sea, and even outer space. Tardigrades are about the width of two human hairs, but our six-foot-long replication shows what the human eye can’t see without a microscope. Artwork by Blue Rhino Studios
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Acknowledgments
This exhibition was organized by the Field Museum.
Major support is generously provided by Lilly Endowment Inc.
