Family diamonds

Perception of death has been changing under the influence of religion, culture and science. Nowadays death is viewed as something awful, ugly, wrong and unexpected. Due to modern medical achievements the fact of death is estranged from humans. In the past people considered death as a sublime event, as the great moment when soul reunites with God and they had rituals for slow acceptance of death. Some time ago a new technology appeared in Switzerland: it transforms cremation ashes into diamonds. At least 500g of cremated remains are needed to produce a cremation diamond of 0.15 ct minimum. Human body temporality is defeated - a physical bit of a person remains after his death. And this bit is presented by the most beautiful and most solid gem - a diamond. Within this project I module a situation in which this technology of producing memorial diamonds has been around for many years. And several diamonds have remained from my ancestors left as a part of my family archive. I can look at them and even take these diamonds into my hands. The Christian culture claimed: “… till thou return unto the ground; for out of it waste thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis, 3:19). Perhaps progress itself suggests we perceive death in a new way: to see it as a process of love transformation into precious diamond memories?