The lovely Light Grey Art Lab had its final gallery opening in their current space, The End is Nigh, a curious look at death through history and culture. It was fun and bittersweet to see so many familiar faces.

A bit about the research behind my piece “RETURN”:

The body has undergone an intense preservation process in most funerals and burials we attend today. Through the use of embalming fluid we are kept in a life-like state, and morticians are truly artisans painting and repairing our bodies to be viewed by our loved ones before we are laid to our final resting place. In this current process however, our bodies take up valuable resources, expose funeral workers to toxic chemicals, and also leech those chemicals into our soil. When buried in a traditional coffin, human bodies typically take at least 10 years to break down. There are those who desire an alternative to this, and several scientists have been experimenting with “green burials” and two companies in particular have been using mushrooms to break down the body.

One, Coeio, based on the work of Jae Rhim Lee, has developed a suit and shroud sewn with mushrooms directly into the garment. It is made up of mushrooms and other microorganisms that aid in decomposition, works to neutralize toxins found in the body and transfer nutrients to plant life. Another is Greenmatters, a company that has developed a coffin called the Living Cocoon. This coffin alternative composts in just 30 to 45 days, and the body inside breaks down within two to three years.

Processes like these allow us to return to the earth in a way that is beneficial to ourselves, the planet, and generations to follow.