My Future Sarcophagus
We wake in the morning and leave our homes and we work, work, work, to keep the great global chain of procurement in place. Then we throw 40 percent of everything we just accomplished in the garbage. We can never get those hours back. Our children grow up, our bodies wane, and death comes to claim some of those we love. All the while, we spend our days making things for the purpose of discarding them.
Hope Jahren
Author, scientist; on food waste
From: The Story of More: How We Got To Climate Change and Where to Go From Here
After 6 weeks of unsuccessfully attempting to grow Plurotus Djamor mushrooms on a straw filled, life sized body form, ( details photos of mold and bacteria other than that of the pink oyster mushroom are available ) I have pivoted slightly away from the project thesis of Beyond Death Project. I was recently inspired by images of Niombo fabric coffins from the Sundi Congo regions of Africa and I decided to create a ceremonial garment made from plastic bags which wrapped my food and that I collected for the past year. There is a form of exchange here of life and death, but it is not direct and the process of creating new forms of life will take much longer. The oversize dress coat has a sort of repugnant beauty, but the cycle of nature has been broken by humans. Even though some bags are supposedly biodegradable, their decomposition will take many years. In fact this gown will certainly outlast me, so perhaps I can get buried in it ?
Hopefully at that time, the energy bonds can be loosened and the methane gasses produced by the decomposing plastics as well as my body may be able to heat the earth and other organisms and reduce global warming. I’m including some informational sources that say we may be heading in that direction with wax worms, heat or even water!
This piece is in support of all the innovation, as a solution to our global environmental dilemma.
Marta Baumiller
https://slideplayer.com/slide/13988782/
https://gramho.com/explore-hashtag/niombo
https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/04/21/new-process-makes-biodegradable-plastics-truly-compostable/
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-long-does-it-take-garbage-to-decompose-2878033
Marta,
Your focus on the ability of materials to break down and reenter the life stream, in combination with the burial and funeral practices of the people of the Congo provide a fascinating entry into the Beyond Death theme. However, many of the most poignant aspects of these topics are not addressed in this work of art.
Several issues are not clear. For example, is your incorporation of plastic ironic, because it does not biodegrade in its current form?
If this is so, irony could be developed by treating the Sarcophagus coat as a component of a larger project, such as a staged version of your own ironic funeral. The reference to a sarcophagus is ironic because sarcophagi are usually carved out of stone to resist decomposition and persist through time. The funeral ceremony might include performing chants honoring the everlasting landfills where you, in your plastic sarcophagus coat, will linger for the ages.
Compare that to the traditional fabric of the Congo people in which the leaf of the raffia tree is hand cut, and then the strips of leaf are woven to make pieces of fabric, often called raffia cloth. Each fabric, each pattern, and each design in traditional kuba fabrics has great meaning.
Other references to death-and-temporality within the Congo traditions include: when a great chieftain dies, the corpse is dried for two weeks; a great many quilts, rugs, and such are wrapped around the corpse; when the corpse is buried, people drum, dance, play, sing, feast, drink in celebration; a cosmogram is inscribe on the niombo chest; burial sites were decorated with utensils, bottles, and vessels used by the deceased in their lifetime, etc.
You have identified a topic that is ripe for exploring within the beyond death framework. This is a terrific beginning. Will you consider developing it?
But none of these comments are relevant if you are including plastic as a hopeful sign of future degradability.
Also – your original work would have succeeded with mold and bacteria. Why was it necessary to produce oyster mushrooms?