Tim Marlow Presents Judgement Day – Images Of Heaven And Hell DVD –  

Judgement Day: Images of Heaven & Hell is a three part series made by Brighton-based company Seventh Art Productions. In these films Tim Marlow leading art historian and writer explores the relationship between art and the afterlife from the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead to Stanley Spencer’s vision of heaven as a small English town. In this new series Tim will explore how ideas of afterlife have been depicted in art throughout the world. The first episode JUDGEMENT focuses on the moment of judgement after death tracing its origins in ancient Egypt and going on to explore Buddhist art as well as works by Michelangelo and the contemporary British artist Mark Wallinger. In the second programme HEAVEN Tim reveals that the idea of a blissful realm beyond death appears in many religions around the world and has been a subject for artists since the time of the Egyptians right up to the work of Tracey Emin. In the final programme HELL Tim explores depictions of hell ranging from an Islamic version from 15th century Afghanistan to a monumental work by the British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman destroyed in warehouse fire in the spring of 2004. The promise of heaven and the threat of hell have for some societies been a carrot-and -stick device to aid the maintenance of the status quo. Throughout the series Tim asks whether artistic depictions of the afterlife are the expression of a deep spirituality or the product of society’s need to police individual behaviour. Above all the series provides a new fresh look at some of art’s greatest works.