Living and Dying

Cradle to Grave, the central installation by Pharmacopoeia, draws on medical histories to make the treatment of a lifetime visible. It sits within a gallery concerned with how people maintain health, face illness and understand death. The room brings different cultural settings into that conversation. Hoa Hakananai’a, the basalt ancestor figure from Rapa Nui, has a history tied to a particular island and community. An Andean display offers another setting for relationships between people, belief and wellbeing. Give each group of objects its own context. Similar concerns can produce very different practices, materials and images. With Hoa Hakananai’a, the carved marks on the back belong to the figure’s later history as well as its frontal form. The gallery makes space for everyday care alongside the treatment of ancestors and the dead.