Sabina Del Angel Cherrington

Discovering the ways we live with death.

‘Memento Mori’ is Latin for ‘remember you die’, a phrase traditionally used to keep man’s glory in check, and to make every moment in life count.  This Memento Mori project was created with the hope of expanding that narrative, to include the idea of a healthy space for death in life. It was born as a reaction to seeing a Western death-denying culture and a generation living largely without a place to hold the reality of death. The project explores worldwide death-related traditions and the common themes of culture and community they foster. The final Memento Mori box was influenced by magical realism and orphism to include illustrations that communicate the relationship between reality and death in 7 selected death traditions, from India, South Korea, Mexico, Madagascar, Tibet, African America and Aotearoa.  The box and its contents are designed to feel like a memento, a keepsake, with information and quotes to provoke thought and conversation, and space to add personal artefacts to the conversation