I've just come back from a wrenching meeting and wanted to sit for a bit and settle.
I was reading the Guardian on line and saw something that helped me put things into perspective. 
When we're all dead and gone, what will be left to memorialize us? Is it a stone or a plaque? 
Or are our remains scattered to the winds in some special place?
The Guardian's photo essay that I saw featured some modern memorials. I was particularly taken with how warm and whimsical some of them were. Will they stand the test of time in keeping a memory alive? 
I hope so!
The feel like ancient runes. Thank you for this piece, its visually stunning.
ReplyDeleteI like this piece, a great reminder of how each day is a prescious gift!
ReplyDeleteLeslie
Thought provoking. Was this an experimental installation or are these memorials for real individuals? I've never seen anything quite like this, except for public memorials.
ReplyDeleteToad... click HERE to see some of the other ones, as well as an explanation. They're hewn stone and really look ancient, especially picture no. 7.
ReplyDeleteCourtney, here's some more explanation:
ReplyDeleteMany people wish to mark the death of a loved one with a beautiful and personal memorial, but don't know how to go about it. A new exhibition, Art and Memory, brings together the first national collection of modern memorial art. Artists were commissioned to create fitting memorials, from a circle of rugged stones, to a triptych in green slate, or a simple engraved pebble. The Memorial Arts Charity helps the public to work directly with artists to create individual memorials.
The collection is at West Dean, Sussex, until November. From spring 2010 the works will be divided between six permanent sites, with four pieces remaining at West Dean. They will be found at University Botanic Gardens, Birmingham; the Memorial Garden, Canterbury Cathedral; Grimsthorpe Castle Memorial Garden, Lincolnshire; Blair Castle, Scotland; and the Monnow Valley Art Centre, Herefordshire.
I love those memorial sculptures, I love cemetries, to go to them always puts everything in the right prospective for me. I find somehow after the II World War personal memorial stones have became so much more plain and often without style, especially for people without the means to spend much on them. I love an individual aproach, as individual as the people were for which those memorials are ment to be. I could imagine future cemetries like large parks with those sculptures you've shown and hidden path', lots of green, water and quiet corners...
ReplyDeleteA place where I could imagine one day to go and feel something meaningful, a connection to people I've lost.
Whoa! I didn't expect this... It is so different. And interesting. But kind of strange. Maybe because it is so different and not heavy and sad like we've seen for centuries with the typical looming tombstone.
ReplyDeleteThanks Meg. Now I get it.
ReplyDeleteMeg - I am so sorry about the meeting, but can see how you found solace here.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is good to try to put things in perspective, I received some not so good news yesterday as well, snapped out of it as soon as possible. I went for a short walk, This is beautiful, Meg,I love these memorials. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis has so opened my eyes to something beyond a headstone .. .
ReplyDelete(which I won't have, 'cause I've chosen to be torched)
I love the idea of a memorial sculpture ... . you've got me
thinking!
JJjj
Judith... how about the 2nd to last image! That's pretty clever!
ReplyDeleteAs solemn as death is I love the fact that these seem more to celebrate the life than the even of death.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!!!!
I think a sculpture park with a place for "cremains" would be a much better use of space for the future. I love this idea and have been advocating it for years. Love the use of modern work and hopeful, humorous remarks. After working 20 years to tame my sloping yard with stone terraces, I've built my own resting place. I told my husband to make sure doesn't put all of my ashes in one place. I understand that could mess of the soil ph.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful memorials - I've never seen anything like these. They manage to be unusual yet appropriate. I especially like the idea of text that wraps around the stone.
ReplyDelete