Simon Frend

Simon Frend is a British sculptor and designer based in Bournemouth and the founder of Dying Arts, a practice devoted to the objects that surround death. His cremation urns take the form of Korean moon jars — restrained, undecorated, closer to vessel than to product — and are made from sustainable, organic materials through low-energy processes, designed to return to the environment without trace.

Each piece is tied to a place: some are made from materials gathered on beaches, in woods or along rivers and are meant to be returned to that same landscape, while others, such as Coffee and Newspaper, are built from the stuff of daily ritual. Frend lets material and process decide colour and surface. The collection grew out of lead canopic vessels made nearly thirty years ago, and out of scattering his father’s ashes in Poole Harbour.