La muerte
The image “Death” by Jacqueline Delaye – Lady Kunst – confronts us with a powerful and personal representation of death: not as an external or abstract entity, but as an intimate, almost familiar figure that lives within us.
From a warm setting where ochre and reddish tones dominate the wooded environment, a hooded and solemn figure emerges, looking directly at the viewer. Around her, other smaller versions of the artist’s face can be seen, amplifying the idea of multiple facets of herself meeting death. The composition conveys the feeling of a ritual: death is not represented as a failure, but as an act of self-recognition and transformation.
Inner death as a mirror
Each of the small replicas of the face responds to death, symbolizing how we all carry a small “death” within: fears, losses, transformations. These multiple versions reinforce the idea that death inhabits and traverses our identity, acting as a mirror of our deepest selves.
Frontal confrontation with the inevitable
The hooded main figure fixes his gaze, without dissimulation, without looking away. As in a mirror, death returns our own internalized image, inviting us to stop and reflect on our finitude.
Cycle of life and rebirth
In the description of the work it is mentioned that “life and death is an infinite cycle reflecting oneself”: the author proposes an eternal return, where death is not an end but part of a journey of self-knowledge and rebirth.
Photographic performance as an emotional rite
As an artist, Delaye uses her own image to swallow the public logic: her death is not represented but acted, performed in front of the camera. The gesture is intimate, powerful, a kind of visual rite where finitude is recognized as part of life itself.
Emotion and atmosphere
Contemplative ambiguity: There is no horror or gore drama. The reverent and balanced atmosphere suggests serenity, as if death were a wise companion rather than an enemy.
Inner dialogue: It invites us to contemplate our own small deaths: changes, losses, endings that forge us, that make us grow.
Personal and creative rite: The scene is intimate, almost liturgical. The use of the figure of the “double” intensifies the idea of the multiplicity of the self that confronts, dissolves and reconstructs itself.