Artist Helen Bodycomb creates her own biodegradable death shroud

In Melbourne, Australia, noted mosaic artist Helen Bodycomb has created a biodegradable “death wrap” that she intends to be buried in. The work was inspired by Greco-Roman burial shrouds and runs counter to one of the cornerstones of good mosaic art: permanence.

“I wanted to make a mosaic that really challenged some of the conventions around mosaic, like material permanence,” Bodycomb tells The Age.  “And Shroud is about my love for a particular place, Vaughan [in central Victoria]. I’m interested in seeing time as a measure of change, through a lens that is both shorter and longer than my own lifetime.”

Ironically, the work will not be complete until Bodycomb’s death. “I’m the final ingredient, that’s part of the punchline in a way,” she says.