Price of Life
Artist/Maker
Wal Chirachaisakul
(Thai, b. 1990)
Date2018
MediumMezzotint
DimensionsImage: 15 3/4 × 21 in. (40 × 53.3 cm)
Sheet: 19 1/2 × 28 in. (49.5 × 71.1 cm)
Sheet: 19 1/2 × 28 in. (49.5 × 71.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Driek (OC 1965) and Michael (OC 1964) Zirinsky
Edition2/25
Object number2021.59.10
Status
On viewWhat is the price of life? Wal Chirachaisakul’s riveting image uses a symbol of death to ask the viewer to reflect on life. A human skull rests in an ornate offering tray used in Thai Buddhist temples, surrounded by coins. The artist has said that the work is in part a critique of materialism, which he argues is a false measurement of success and happiness.
Look closely at the skull: a UPC barcode is on its forehead. Is Chirachaisakul suggesting that a human life is just another commodity? Is offering up money and an obsession with materialism to the Buddha a way of transcending them? What do you think it symbolizes?
Exhibition History
Look closely at the skull: a UPC barcode is on its forehead. Is Chirachaisakul suggesting that a human life is just another commodity? Is offering up money and an obsession with materialism to the Buddha a way of transcending them? What do you think it symbolizes?
Shadows of Meaning, Echoes of Memory: Works from the Zirinsky Collection
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 31, 2025 - June 29, 2025 )
Collections
- Modern & Contemporary
- On View
This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator. Noticed a mistake? Have some extra information about this object?
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18th century
17th century
17th–18th century
15th century
1st century BCE
1st century BCE
1st century BCE
13th–15th century