STATISTICS of doom are all around us at the moment, with today’s near two million unemployment numbers only the latest in a succession of digital disasters fed by the credit crunch monster.
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What better way to celebrate the new-found fascination for depressing figures than a piece of art work that commemorates the grimmest number of all? Sure enough, from 1 January next year, London will get its very own Death Counter.
The brainchild of Spanish artist Santiago Sierra, the Death Counter is a giant LED sign that will show the number of deaths worldwide as the year unfolds. As calculated by the people at the US Census Bureau, the projection is for 55 million poor sods to cash their chips in 2009, which works out as about two per second.
Sierra is being sponsored by insurers Hiscox for the project, which has brought a couple of twists to the tale. First, the Death Clock will be on the frontage of Hiscox’s City of London HQ and second, the company have agreed to pay out euro150,000 in life insurance if Sierra himself meets his maker during 2009.
“Equating the black hole of death to a series of numbers is both of-our-age and visually mesmerising,” said Elliot McDonald, curator of the Hiscox Art Project.
“Connecting those numbers with a value of one life (his own!) he brings us a whole new dilemma involving three of life’s big themes; money, death and self-assurance. A fabulous concept and a stunning sculpture.”
