BURIAL VAULT

I created this painting to conceptually compliment the frame, which I found at an estate sale of a recently deceased frame maker. It was in rough condition, broken and falling apart with every touch. It still had the original price tag, “$2000 as is”, dangling from the foot of this decrepit frame in a fashion reminiscent of a toe tag.

“It’s old.” the late frame maker’s daughter told me when I asked about its poor state, though it was surely beautiful and pristine at one time. “No one wanted to pay that price for the condition it was in.” She looked tired, worn down by grief and the stress of sorting through all the belongings left behind; a burden I too have experienced a handful of times in my life. “I’ll give it to you cheap” she said.

Being an artist, I often think about the things we leave behind after death; what stays treasured and what becomes landfill. Things we stubbornly hold onto for their perceived value- even our bodies, which we pay thousands of dollars to preserve in luxurious caskets under pricey burial plots. People never know how truly expensive it is to die until they need to bury someone they love, making it all too easy for a predatory funeral home to take advantage of the shock and confusion often marking the early stages of grief. 

The burial vault is a requirement for any casket burial. It’s a cement box that separates the coffin from the outside elements, intended to prevent it caving in.. I have heard however, (from a funeral home director) that in practically all cases, the vault will flood over time, leaving the corpse perpetually floating in water.

I will leave to you, the viewer, to make what you will of this unsettling proposition.