The Daily Undertaker, The Variety and Importance of Ritual

Garments for the Grave Documentary film seeking participant

Pia Interlandi is a Melbourne fashion designer who creates unique Garments For The Grave; beautiful outfits to be buried in. Her designs are tailored from fabrics that fuse with the body over time through the natural process of decay. In addition to fashion design, Pia’s practice incorporates dressing the body and guiding loved ones through the death process. She is a licensed funeral celebrant and PhD candidate. Her garments are fully customizable: the wearer may choose to dye, embroider with poetry or lyrics, print images, stitch in pockets for letters or mementos, or to leave it very clean. Pia’s work is part of a new wave of funeral customs in Australia and around the world, which seek a personalized experience of death in honouring of life; as well as the emerging “Natural earth burial” movement, which places the body in closer context with nature. In June, a documentary team will follow Pia and her client as they collaborate on a garment for burial. The finished film, SOUL, will be a part of the award winning Anatomy Arts series, made for the ABC. The film will explore the idea of what our soul is, where it goes after death vis-à-vis Pia’s own art practice. We are currently seeking an individual to collaborate with the designer on a garment for their own burial, for filming in June 2012.

Cremains of The Day: A look at words in Funeral Service

Euphemisms abound in funeral service. As Hugh Rawson explains in one of my most favorite books, Euphemisms & Other Double Talk (Crown Publishers NY, 1981), words that are used to describe unpleasant things begin to take on an unpleasant connotation themselves. Before long, the word itself seems to be the bad thing. This is the case with many of the four letter words we try not to utter, innocent words of great age and provenance that honestly describe their subject are eventually considered derogatory, and are then replaced with obscure quasi-latin and semi-medical terms or with flowery hints at the real subject.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Inspiring Services

Beyond Goodbye: A Conversation with Jimmy Edmonds and Jane Harris

How to Create a Meaningful Service: Rubber Boots

Ashes on the Sea: A conversation with Ken and Anya Shortridge

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