The Metamorphosis of the Coffin
Secretan, Thierry
The Metamorphosis of the Coffin - 2011.
67
The first articles by Thierry Secretan concerning the figurative coffins from Ghana appeared in 1989 in The Sunday Telegraph, GEO and Life, introducing the western world to this funeral art. Later Thierry Secretan’s documentary film and his book ( Il fait sombre va t’en, Hazan, 1994, Going into Darkness, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1995) revealed under which circumstances this art was born in Ghana at the end of the 1950’s. In 1999, Erimore, a Scottish lady, saw two of these coffins on a British TV show. They belonged to a Bristol funeral parlour to which Erimore placed an order: her coffin would take the shape of the fighter plane used by the Red arrows, the national air team. Erimores’s coffin widely advertised in the British press provoked more orders throughout the United Kingdom. Europeans borrowing an African custom is a rare phenomenon. Thierry Secretan decided to meet these customers, to photograph them next to their coffin and to interview them about their motivations.
The Metamorphosis of the Coffin - 2011.
67
The first articles by Thierry Secretan concerning the figurative coffins from Ghana appeared in 1989 in The Sunday Telegraph, GEO and Life, introducing the western world to this funeral art. Later Thierry Secretan’s documentary film and his book ( Il fait sombre va t’en, Hazan, 1994, Going into Darkness, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1995) revealed under which circumstances this art was born in Ghana at the end of the 1950’s. In 1999, Erimore, a Scottish lady, saw two of these coffins on a British TV show. They belonged to a Bristol funeral parlour to which Erimore placed an order: her coffin would take the shape of the fighter plane used by the Red arrows, the national air team. Erimores’s coffin widely advertised in the British press provoked more orders throughout the United Kingdom. Europeans borrowing an African custom is a rare phenomenon. Thierry Secretan decided to meet these customers, to photograph them next to their coffin and to interview them about their motivations.
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