Dutch artist uses human ashes to create 3D sculptures

A Dutch artist is using the ashes of dead people to create common household objects using a 3D industrial printer. The donated remains funnel into the unit - usually used to create solid prototypes of manufacturing parts - and come out as a bizarre memorial.

Artist Wieki Somers said the project demonstrates the fragility of life and questions our attachment to inanimate objects.



“We may offer Grandpa a second life as a useful rocking chair or even as a vacuum cleaner or a toaster,” she said. “Would we then become more attached to these products?”

More than 465,000 litres of human ashes are produced every day worldwide and Somers’ experiment is the latest in a growing list of alternatives to the traditional scattering.