An Interpretation: Matthew Day Jackson’s ‘The Tomb’

Matthew Day Jackson’s work entitled, ‘The Tomb’, forms part of the ‘Uneasiness and Appropriation’ exhibition at the Gemeente Museum in Den Haag. This artwork immediately struck me as something worthy of analysis. A pastime of mine is to analyse artworks that excite, intrigue and stimulate me. What follows are purely my own thoughts, my own view of an artwork I consider particularly enthralling.

At first glance I did not quite realize that these figures were spacemen – spacemen made of wood. This is already an irony since these men discover other worlds and explore out of space; they are symbolic of innovation in a sense, yet they are in fact made of an earthly substance (wood). And this substance is so deeply ingrained within their makeup that we can physically see the layers, the molecules of earth so to speak, that make up their very being. But these layers are by no means perfect. They are carvings of different patterns and hues and this is evident on different sections of their bodies. One of their faces, for example, has a concentric circular patterning coming together at the ‘nose’ of the sculpture. This is in contrast to the harder block patterning on say the foot or thigh.

But no two are alike. Although they are positioned in the same direction, face slightly lowered in mourning as they carry a glass ‘tomb’, their skins are richly intricate carvings demonstrative of their uniqueness and utter ties to the natural earth despite their motioning towards or from innovation or disaster (or in the midst of it).

The glass tomb, I feel, is symbolic of innovation and discovery. The bright shiny surface heavily juxtaposes with their wooden structure. The light reflecting off the glass tomb is sharp, artificial and luminescent – another contrast with their less-than-perfect, but beautiful outer shells.

Furthermore, the stance of these wooden spacemen (oxymoronic), appears pray-like; heads are bowed as they elevate the glass coffin on their shoulders without the use of their hands (which are folded in front of their bodies). The symbolic coffin (of innovation) is a literal weight on their shoulders. And they are bearing this responsibility, mourning over it if you will.

However, housed inside the coffin is where further intrigue lies. One would think that inside we would find symbols of man-made objects or technologies. Instead, we find a skull of a man attached to a wooden log by thin metal rods. There are many of these metal rods that pierce the log in a myriad of directions. For me, this is symbolic of a quite literal intersection and tension between man, nature and technology. Here man is very literally pierced by the burdens of technological perfection (his own doing) that he, in the process, comes to slaughter himself.

One cannot help but wonder what these wooden spacemen are motioning towards. Are they carrying the remains of human life and what is left of man? Are they sad, hanging their heads in the process? Do they realize the consequences of what man has done? To where are they taking this see-through glass tomb? And lastly, is there some kind of refuge they can seek away from this dystopian world?