A Matter of Life and Death is a 1946 fantasy film made by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the team that brought us The Red Shoes in 1948. The story begins with a W.W. II fighter pilot who must jump without a parachute from his damaged plane. The landing should kill him, but he remains alive, unclaimed by the afterlife. To decide his fate, a trial in a celestial court is held. The exhibition at Thomas Dane, through the medium of clay, looks at art that reflects on catastrophe, life, and death. For instance, early in his practice Lucio Fontana used clay to address the earthquakes in Argentina. Similarly, Phoebe Cummings, Masaomi Yasunaga, Phillip King, and many others in this show invoke processes of decay, disintegration, and resistance in their sculptures. —Elena Clavarino