Igor Moritz I The Light the Dead See

The Light the Dead See 

by Frank Stanford

There are many people who come back

After the doctor has smoothed the sheet

Around their body

And left the room to make his call.

They die but they live.

They are called the dead who lived through their deaths,

And among my people

They are considered wise and honest.

They float out of their bodies

And light on the ceiling like a moth,

Watching the efforts of everyone around them.

The voices and the images of the living

Fade away.

A roar sucks them under

The wheels of a darkness without pain.

Off in the distance

There is someone

Like a signalman swinging a lantern.

The light grows, a white flower.

It becomes very intense, like music.

They see the faces of those they loved,

The truly dead who speak kindly.

They see their father sitting in a field.

The harvest is over and his cane chair is mended.

There is a towel around his neck,

The odor of bay rum.

Then they see their mother

Standing behind him with a pair of shears.

The wind is blowing.

She is cutting his hair.

The dead have told these stories

To the living.

For his first solo show in Scandinavia, Igor Moritz presents The Light the Dead See, an exhibition featuring eight oil paintings of nocturnal portraits and blooming still lifes. Through these works, Moritz deepens his exploration of the human condition, depicting man in relation to himself, to others, and to the world.

Igor Moritz’s (b. 1996, Poland) is mostly self-taught. He attended an arts high school in Poland but studied industrial design in college, and he developed his fine-art practice on his own terms. Moritz has exhibited in London, Paris, New York, and Mallorca, and his work belongs to multiple collections, including Colección SOLO in Madrid, Museum No Hero in Delden and Rad Hourani Foundation in Montreal. Moritz lives and works in London.