A time to be born, a time to die

In the last few days of 2006, Google Video and YouTube were bombarded with searches for Saddam Hussein's hanging. Somewhere in the midst of the world's top secret execution, one of the attendants managed to capture the event on a cell phone, documenting perhaps one of the most defining moments of our time.\nSuppose this document of history were to be exhibited in an art museum. How would you respond?\n"I would probably be very angry, and, depending on the graphic quality of it, I may or may not puke," freshman Rachel Weidner said. She continued, however: "If it was done in a way that depicts death penalties as inhumane, no matter how horrible the criminal, I might be able to get down with it."\nOthers feel that it is still worthy of consideration.\n"I don't know if I would want to look at it personally," said junior Nathan Brown, "but I think that, considering it has so much social and historical context, it would make an interesting piece of artwork."\nIt is clear through these responses that the shocking aspect of this portrayal is not the image's lack of artistic intent and quality, but the theme behind the image -- death. Death is shocking, morose and deeply impacting. Used artistically, however, it can be a powerful tool to sculpt a work of disturbing beauty.\nSo far, Saddam's execution has not been the subject of any photo galleries, but the death of world leaders has been the subject of famous works of art in the past.\nFrom 1867 to 1869, French painter Edouard Manet produced many historical depictions of the execution of Mexican emperor Maximilian. In 1814, Francisco Goya finished "The Third of May, 1808," his heavily nationalistic painting depicting the brutal gunfire execution of Spanish fighters during the Peninsula War.\nDeath is even a common theme among today's younger culture. The new craze for eclectic, original songs and diamond-in-the-rough indie music has brought about the popularity of such bands as Bright Eyes, The Postal Service and Sufjan Stevens, all of which discuss death on multiple occasions. In one of the band's songs, The Postal Service morbidly reminds us, "We'll become silhouettes when our bodies finally go." In Bright Eyes' "Bowl of Oranges", we are advised, "Your eyes must do some raining if you're ever going to grow."\nWe cry at funerals. We are frozen by hospital visits. We try everything in our power to avoid the inevitable result of life's paramount -- death. However, through artistic expressions, past and present, we are reminded of it in a gentler, pretty manner. Art has the power to take our fears and turn them into something tangible.\nJunior Nathan Brown later commented on the subject of death in art: "Death is one of the major episodes in life. If artists portray every other part of life, why not death"