Eat Your Elkins, Its Good For You

Promise.

'The alchemist's interest in putrefactio is shared by contemporary artists, many of whom see something beautiful in natural decay. The rotting fruit, blooming at the back of the refrigerator, is also outlandishly beautiful with its crown of bluish hair spreading over a glowing orange skull. So is the throat ravaged with bronchitis, blossoming in smooth white flowers. And the bloated deer half-swamped in the lakeshore is also beautiful, with its gorgeous smooth hide stretched into a lucent bubble. There are hundreds of examples in fine art, each more nauseating and compelling than the last. The installation artist Anne Hamilton soaked a thousand pennies in honey, and then let them gather a film of dust; Andres Serrano made stagnant infusions of piss, semen and milk; Frances Whitehead works with fabrics soaked in water, muds, oils and resins.'

again from What Painting Is (70)