Ode to the Unclaimed Dead

Year 2022

Materials Plywood casket, thousands of dandelion seeds

Dimension 79.5” x 29.5” x 16.75”

Description The pine casket, synonymous with pauper’s graves and potter’s fields and devoid of all traces of ritual and remembrance, is delicately studded with dandelion seeds, the ultimate symbol of hope and potential. No longer the mark of obscurity, the shrouded coffin offers up a gentle requiem for the lost and provides the living with a touchstone to reclaim an infinite number of memories stolen away by the poverty, illness, and isolation so rampant in western society, mitigating the unwavering indifference of systems that fail to protect its most vulnerable populations.