To commemorate Pop artist Andy Warhol’s would-be 85th birthday, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh has teamed up with the video network EarthCam to stream live video feed from the artist’s grave. Warhol, who died in 1987 from complications stemming from a routine gallbladder surgery, would have been 85 on August 6, 2013.
The project, “Figment,” will be on view indefinitely and aims to connect Warhol to the museum’s global audience. The project’s title was pulled from a comment by Warhol:
“I never understood why when you died, you didn’t just vanish, and everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn’t be there. I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment.’”
Warhol’s tombstone, which is located in a Roman Catholic cemetery outside Pittsburgh, his hometown, is engraved with his name, the dates of his birth and death, and a cross. Warhol’s grave attracts many of the artist’s fans and the live feed shows his resting place adorned with flowers and balloons.
Eric Shiner, the director of the Andy Warhol Museum, told the Associated Press, “We believe that this will give Warhol the pleasure of knowing that he is still plugged in and turned on over 25 years after his death.”
