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\n<\/p>\nThe recent deathfest in and around London\u2019s Royal Festival Hall \u2013 entitled \u201cDeath: Southbank Centre\u2019s Festival for the Living\u201d \u2013 was cleverly fronted by an eyecatching exhibition of splendidly imaginative coffins. \u201cBoxed: Fabulous Coffins from UK and Ghana\u201d showcased a wonderful selection of inventive coffins from the Paa Joe workshop in Ghana, and Crazy Coffins in Nottingham.\n<\/p>\n
Visitors toured the coffins with a smile on their face: here death was met by wit, imagination and artistry. In place of a plain and sombre traditional casket, there was a giant guitar, a huge ballet shoe, and outsized skateboard, a mini-skip, a miniature aeroplane, a luxury car, a polar explorer\u2019s sled, a cocoa pod and a hungry-looking lion.\n<\/p>\n
It is the Ghanaians who have led the way: caskets are designed to reflect the character or passions of the deceased: a mobile phone, coke bottle, a giant cigarette, a fish, hens and chicks, a sewing machine, a football boot. The man credited with creating this modern phenomenon in the capital, Accra, is Seth Kane Kwei (1922\u20131992), who extrapolated from a local tradition of coffin building to give it a new imaginative thrust. Paa Joe, whose coffins were featured in the Southbank show, is Seth Kane Kwei\u2019s nephew.\n<\/p>\n
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Crazy Coffins<\/a> of Nottingham echo this tradition \u2013 and with a name like that, you know what territory you are entering. They have been in the business of creating weird and wonderful coffins for over 15 years now, ever since a woman rang the traditional coffin makers Vic Fearn & Company (owners of Crazy Coffins) and asked for a casket in the shape of an aeroplane. Most of their beautifully crafted designs are commissioned by clients while they are still alive, for their own personal use.\n<\/p>\n Several other companies are bringing a new kind of gaiety to funerals, without going the full sculptural hog of Crazy Coffins. Creative Coffins<\/a> use a standard shape of coffin in cardboard and wood, but decorated it with bright and imaginative designs \u2013 tulips, a red telephone box, a DJ turntables, woodland scenery, a chocolate box, peas (with the inscription \u201cRest in Peas\u201d). And if you can\u2019t find anything you like off-the-peg, you can commission your own design.\n<\/p>\n So what would you choose?\n<\/p>\n Picture credit: \u201cHen coffin by Kudjoe Affutu, 2008\u201d, photo by Regula Tschumi, reproduced courtesy of Wikimedia Commons in accordance with the terms of Creative Commons.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the recent exhibition at London\u2019s Southbank Centre demonstrated, coffins these days can come in any shape, form or colour. In fact, the sky\u2019s the limit!<\/p>\n