Mary Ann Bolger lecturers in design history and theory at Dublin Institute of Technology.
She is a graduate of the joint M.A. in History of Design at the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and is currently pursuing postgraduate research at the RCA on the topic of post-war Irish graphic design.
In this essay she explained the cult of death in Irish culture. She mentioned Nina Witoszel and Patrick Sheehan'statements which they believe this cult is amplified by Irish literature & drama. Mary states a great deal of literature has been dedicated to the subject. Most of focuses in the writing is on political uses of death and on the folk tradition of the wake.
She mentions memorial card is the aspect of Irish Catholic funeral practice.
Typical memorial Card: single bi-fold
2*4 inches/ holy photo in front
The name, date of death, adress of deceased, recent photo in reverse
The aim of sending those cards was that to wish prayers for deceased relatives.
Mary focuses on testing the material dimension of printed matter itself. Method of addressing printed ephemera is informed by Elizabeth Edward's work on memory and photography + by Roland Barthes meditation on photography, materiality and death in his book 'Camera Lucida'.
According to the writing (by Brian Dillon) in the Guardian that book's more penetrating influence has certainly to do with photography and mortality: both the memorial uses to which photographs have long been put – one thinks of Victorian mourning portraits, or the profusion of post-9/11 mementos – and the vertigo we can feel in the face of even the most vivid and living subject.
Mary said Barthes mentioned about vulnerability of the photographs and he said they are not mortal because their paper are attacked by environmental effects like light, humidity,...
