Deadness, How to Manage Stillness and The Old Blood

Baseman was awarded £29,896 by the Wellcome Trust for three films: Deadness (narrated slide film), How to Manage Stillness (film) and The Old Blood (film). The films featured contemporary embalming, reconstruction processes, the preparation of bodies for burial on land and at sea and cremation. Deadness was first shown at ‘Deadness’, a solo exhibition of Baseman's work at Matt's Gallery in 2013. How to Manage Stillness and The Old Blood were first shown and featured as part of a solo exhibition of Baseman's work at Fabrica, Brighton in 2013. The films investigated contemporary embalming, including the technical and anatomical processes of this restorative art, as well as the philosophical and sociological significance, and meaning of the practice, contextualised through original interviews with an embalmer, Geoff Taylor (The Old Blood) and the sociologists, Dr. John Troyer (Deadness) and Dr. Kate Woodthorpe (How to Manage Stillness) from the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath. The films and installation combine personal accounts of performing restorative and cosmetic processes on the deceased, alongside academic and sociological ideas regarding contemporary embalming practices.