Santiago Sierra "No Global Tour." Courtesy Artfacts.net.

On Feb. 1, a retrospective of work by Santiago Sierra will open  at London's Lisson Gallery. It is called "Dedicated to the Workers and the Unemployed." Hm, sounds culturally relevant.

For one recent piece, No Global Tour, Mr. Sierra traveled the world with a sculpture shaped in the form of the word "No" and made a film of the journey. For another piece, 160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People, Mr. Sierra took drug-addicted prostitutes and gave them enough money for a single fix of heroin in exchange for tattooing their backs with, well, a 160 cm line. Sounds worth it! Maybe.

If all that sounds--oh, just a little pessimistic, get a load of Death Counter, an LED display that counts the number of human deaths worldwide since the beginning of the year. It will be mounted outside the gallery.

Yep, there's nothing like a pleasant day of looking at contemporary art to remind you of human mortality and the inevitability that you and everyone you've ever loved will die someday and you don't know when or how but someday either soon or far down the line you're going to have to say goodbye and it's probably going to be really painful and upsetting.

Sounds like a real cheerful exhibition you got there, Mr. Sierra.