When love is urn-ed
With All Souls’ Day coming up, it’s an apt time to talk about urns. Cinerary urns, in particular — the vessels we use to preserve the ashes of our dearly departed. Few people think about the aesthetic design of urns — but art curator and writer Stephanie Frondoso does.
Frondoso, who works for several art galleries, brings in crystal urns from the Czech Republic, which is famous for the exquisite crystal produced by its glassblowers.
It’s not just aesthetic; it’s economically practical. “The majority of Filipinos have difficulty affording a plot of land and a casket, which could cost up to half a million pesos,” notes Frondoso. “Already saddled with hospital bills and other expenses upon the death of a loved one, the most realistic for most Filipinos is to have niches in a columbarium, and an urn, which is much more affordable than a casket.”
She relates how she made the Philippine connection.
‘The designs are uplifting and bring comfort and joy to the families who select them for their loved ones.’
“I became involved with Czech glass art when the Czech consul a few years ago wanted to start a project in the Philippines,” Frondoso says. “For this, I suggested a possible collaboration between Filipino artists/ designers and Czech glassblowers. To study its feasibility, I traveled to the glassblowing regions in the Czech Republic and observed how they had already begun collaborating with artists and designers from all over the world.”
She then returned to Manila to select three artists/designers to bring to the studios. “We worked with the glassblowers for two weeks, two years in a row, and I presented the works (about 40 per residency) at exhibitions in several cities, including Prague, Milan Design Week, Paris Design Week, Art Stage Singapore, Art Fair Philippines, and with local galleries Salcedo Private View, A-11 and Aphro.”
While Stephanie was working on the glass art project, some people in the Philippines suggested that she import crystal cinerary urns because the selection of local urns until that point was mostly very depressing marble urns and a few metal and wood designs. “However, the Czech Republic has been producing and exporting beautiful and elegant crystal cinerary urns to countries around the