Regrow
Throughout my practice, I have explored the potential of built objects as a bridge connecting individuals to the world. An urn or coffin is an especially meaningful object, not only as a vessel for one’s remains, but also as a container of memory and an instigator of conversation around dying and death, which is so often avoided in American culture.
This vessel, Regrow, is constructed from timber salvaged from discarded furniture. The timber itself had a first life as a tree, a second life as chairs and shelves, and now is entering its third life as an urn. The timber is still viable—only its form and function have changed. Recognition of the value of the continuous existence of the timber as its role has changed is an appropriate metaphor for its function as an urn.
The imagery is of lily plants. Lilies are strongly associated with funerals due to their symbolic meaning of restoration of innocence to the soul of the departed. I chose to focus on the greenery and the upward growth of the plant. The background of a gradational dot pattern together with semi-translucent color indicates a permeability between solid and intangible states as the image appears and dissolves. The representation of green plants also reiterates the continuing life of the timber itself, and of people that live on in our hearts and minds.