Catherine Beck & Jeffrey Cowling at the Mary E. Black Gallery

Our relationship to death and mourning is explored in Presence of Absence, the collaborative exhibition of fine craft by Catherine Beck and Jeffrey Cowling currently on view at the Mary E. Black Gallery. Beck looks to the Victorian-era practice of remembering those we have lost by preserving the hair of the deceased. She incorporates carefully braided strands of hair into her jewellery to create a direct physical connection to the person who has passed away. The work underscores the fragility of our corporeal lives, capturing the fleeting moment we spend here on this planet, while also reconnecting us to our own mortality and impermanence.


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Jeffrey Cowling, Imhotep Funerary Urn, 2014, wenge, handmarbled paper, leather, gold, beeswax

Cowling’s reliquary boxes and urns are precise geometric architectural forms finely crafted from exotic woods and precious metals. They keep the deceased present through their attempt to record and preserve someone’s life and character. The work of both artists demand physical space. Their objects are made to live in our homes and on our bodies. They exist as material reminders of the person who is no longer a part of our ongoing lived experience. Since they reside in our personal space, we are required to care for and interact with them continually. Our society has become void of mourning in many ways – our dying are sent to “centres for living,” cemeteries are fenced off and placed far afield from our lives; death itself is no longer a household reality or an everyday part of life, but a clinical experience. For most of us, death is not present. Beck and Cowling, in their memorial objects, bring it back.


Mary E. Black Gallery: http://www.craft-design.ns.ca/exhibits/current-exhibition
Catherine Beck & Jeffrey Cowling: Presence of Absence continues until August 31.


Daniel Higham works in a butcher shop where he’ll talk to you about art, food, and life. He’ll probably sell you a roast. Daniel writes for Visual Arts News, is Akimblog’s Halifax correspondent, and can be followed on Twitter @HighamDaniel.