The best works of art are provocative ones; those which make you think and encourage discussion. One thing’s for sure, after viewing and reading about these sculptures, you’ll be thinking and talking about them for a long time to come. 
It’s one thing taking paper pulp, moulding and painting it when dry to create paper mache works of art, but human ashes? Dutch design studio Wieke Somers make waves by taking burnt human remains and forming them into sculptures. 
There was a time when design was largely functional. Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company once famously stated that any customer can have a car painted any color that he/she wants as long as it is black. Those days, design or themes had little to do with consumer emotions or choice. As long as something worked, people went along with it. We live in an age where design has become an art-related discipline, and aesthetics play a pivotal role in an increasingly competitive world. 
These are the things that the folks over at Wieke Somers Studio, Wieki Somers herself and Dylan van den Berg aim to highlight. Without discarding the benefits of technological innovation and the evolution of design, they aim to make a statement about the current state of design, evaluating the notion of second-life and how human ashes can be reused. Can you imagine having your grandma’s remains turned into a chair for you to sit on?
There are three unique sculptures, the bird and the toaster, the dung beetle and hand vacuum cleaner, and the weight of a honeycomb. According to the artist/s, human ashes would lend products an emotional value, thus imparting on them a sense of luxury and meaning.
All these sculptures represent different things. Life and death in the case of the bird and the toaster, the cyclical process of dust and waste in the form of the dung beetle and the vacuum cleaner, and the concepts of the value of labor and a single life when it comes to the honeycomb sculpture. Follow the link below to read about each in detail including the identity of the people the sculptures are made of; we guarantee you’ll be left in a state of wonder.
For other sculptures made of slightly more conventional reusables, check out these steampunk sculptures and these recycled electronics transformed into geeky sculptures.
Via: Design Boom
