Artist makes death mask of his father for charity

5:20pm Sunday 7th September 2008

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An artist has made a death mask of his father’s face for charity.

Jamie McCartney, who is based at JAG Gallery, in Madeira Drive, Brighton, made a cast of his father’s face following his death from prostate cancer.

James Stoddart McCartney, 85, died at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on August 22.

Alongside Damien Hirst’s skull picture, Mr McCartney’s cast of his dead father’s face will be auctioned for a prostate cancer charity after a show at London’s Liberty on Thursday.

The sculpture, called After, was taken by Mr McCartney last week.

This was his most emotionally challenging project to date and he went through a lot of soul searching before deciding to proceed with the piece.

Cast in jet-black bitumen and set on a white pillow the cast is not like death masks of the past.

It is a more graphic and disturbing version and a strange amalgam of tomb sculpture, death mask and mummy, which embodies Mr McCartney’s feelings about the experience.

He decided to involve himself fully, handling his father’s corpse, moulding his face and producing an artwork, which explores his relationship with his father, with death and with the living.

He said: “ARKA, the alternative funeral directors in Surrey Street, have been amazing and I hugely appreciate their support in making it possible for me to make the death mask.”

Last year Jamie raised £3,500 at an auction for Macmillan Cancer Support with a sculpture of a woman’s body cast in coffee beans and resin, titled Wake Up and Smell the Coffee.

For more information about the auction visit www.menonlyart.co.uk