That which remains: Memorialisation in art and the ‘living’ melancholy object

Stairways and Ruins

Abstract

After the death of a loved one, specific objects transform to assume a unique identity and meaning to the bereaved. These melancholy objects, as articulated by Margaret Gibson (2004), start to have their own afterlife as objects memorialising the deceased, and the bereaved’s own experience of mourning. In this article, I consider how the melancholy object, as an impoverished replacement of the body of the deceased, echoes experiences of bereavement and ruination. I investigate the objects of grief and our changing relationship with them (Mathijssen 2017) through the example of an episode of the British television series Black Mirror (2011-) titled Be Right Back (2013). Furthermore, I consider how artists respond to complex experiences of grief and loss, and how this is influenced by melancholy objects, by generating meaning through visual picture-making and artmaking. I propose that my digital drawing, Sancrosanctity (2019), can address melancholy objects and loss to become a nuanced melancholy object. Although melancholy objects, devices, and acts reiterate and remind us of the devastation – the ruination – of loss, they are the closest we come to tangibly engaging with what remains of the deceased.