Tuesday, August 11, 2009

keep grandma out of my mural

An interesting article in this month's Economist. Apparently creamtoriums in Denmark are going a bit too far with the whole recycling thing -- proposing to capture and recycle the heat used to burn bodies, as well as reuse of the metal left behind from artifical hips and the like.

This is, apparently, all permitted by a recent rethink by the church, although there were some restrictions:

When the ecclesiastical ministry changed the law to allow such recycling in 2005, it barred the reuse of such spare parts in works of art.
While I don't necessarily disagree, I'm a bit intrigued by the reasoning, as well as the blanket prohibition. Why not merely prohibit the sale of work containing re-used human remains instead of barring their creation as a whole? Is art as a whole so obscene?

(On the other hand, some awkward questions might arise when little Bitsy wants you to put her collage on the fridge...)

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