Navigating Vicissitudes: Memento Omnia Mutari

 

 Navigating Vicissitudes: Memento Omnia Mutari 

Shall I Grow No More Than I Am Bound

One Song Among Us All

Soar The Bridges That I Burnt Before (detail)

Soar The Bridges That I Burnt Before

I've Lived A Life For Wealth To Bring

(l to r) And Here I Lay/ Born On The April Tide/ 
I've Lived A Life For Wealth To Bring

(left) Glowing In The Wonder / Immerse In That One Moment

By Tom Wachunas

“…The raw materials used in these artworks all have direct physical connections to the changes and loss that I have experienced. They come from the process of collection and curation: sticks and bones gathered from the property around my old home, flowers given out of grief, feathers given out of love, photos taken during long reflective walks from times with those no longer here. These are the raw materials of the heart of this artwork. Artwork that at once is about control and lack of control. Holding on and letting go. Remember everything changes…” – excerpt from the artist statement by Greg Martin

   “…And the dangling conversation, And the superficial sighs, Are the borders of our lives…”  lyrics from Paul Simon’s “Dangling Conversation”

Vicissitude -  the quality or state of being changeable / mutability / natural change or mutation visible in nature or in human affairs / a favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance : a fluctuation of state or condition /a difficulty or hardship attendant on a way of life, a career, or a course of action and usually beyond one's control

 

EXHIBIT: Memento Mori – work by Greg Martin/ at Massillon Museum Studio M / 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon, Ohio / ON VIEW THROUGH SEPTEMBER 28, 2025 /330.833.4061 / viewing hours: Tuesday through Saturday 9:30am - 5:00pm and Sunday 2:00pm - 5:00pm

https://www.massillonmuseum.org/

MassMusings podcast with Greg Martin:   https://www.massillonmuseum.org/home/programs/massmusings-musem-podcast

 

   In his artist statement, Cleveland-based Greg Martin tells us that a literal translation of the Latin phrase, memento mori – the name given to this exhibit - is, “remember you must die.”  Historically, the words have been applied to a genre of art that has been practiced across many centuries and  cultures: iconography symbolizing the transitory nature of being alive. Human mortality. Art about the inevitable arrival of our ultimate departure. OK, death.

   But wait. There’s more. Martin also tells us that his own artful mementos represent a deeper dive into the genre. Latin geek that I am from a lifetime ago, I imagined an alternative title for this profoundly arresting mixed media gallery installation: Memento Omnia Mutari. “Remember everything changes,” as the artist re-minds us.

    Looking at the material manifestations of Martin’s intriguing ideations, my sense of the sacrosanct was awakened. Here I was, in a chamber of reliquaries. Yet it certainly wasn’t a dreadful experience of histrionic morbidity or absolute finality. Martin’s assemblages are exquisitely crafted metaphors of – and dangling conversations with – existential vicissitudes. Solemn meditations on the fleeting conditions and circumstances of being alive.

    So death, per se, certainly isn’t the whole story being told in Martin’s objects. Even their titles articulate a narrative spirit, infused with poetic lyricism. I imagined chanting some of those titles, stringing them together as if they were lines in a song.

And here I lay. Born on the April tide. I’ve lived a life for wealth to bring. Glowing in the wonder. Immerse in that one moment. Soar the bridges that I burnt before. Forget our fate. Shall I grow no more than I am bound. One song among us all.

   One song among us all indeed. An eloquent confession of life’s evanescence.