This essay was originally commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria for publication in NGV Magazine, Issue #30, Sep-Oct 2021. ‘Designing the Unknown: Symbols and objects of death, remembrance and mourning in design and making’ was written by Penny Craswell.
We might not think of designers as being concerned with existential subjects such as mortality, but if we take a closer look at symbols and objects of death, remembrance and mourning throughout history, a different story emerges. Looking at design works in the NGV Collection as well as common symbols, from the Jolly Roger to the ‘spiky blob’ of COVID-19, Penny Craswell explores how designers confront the big questions of life and death, and how they can influence our perceptions and attitudes towards the unknown.
‘Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.’ — HARUKI MURAKAMI
I was about ten years old when I saw my first death mask. Ned Kelly’s face seemed almost serene – eyes closed, head smooth, propped up in a glass display case at the Old Melbourne Gaol. The memory of that moment has stayed with me all these years – standing there I had a powerful sense of fascination mixed with fear. This was not some horror movie or bogeyman – this was a real man, a real corpse. And his life was really taken, here, at these gallows.
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