Mary Ann Bolger - The Ephemera of Eternity: The Irish Catholic Memorial Card as Material Culture

Mary Ann Bolger’s essay focuses on the lack of change that has occurred in Catholic memorial cards over the years, at least regarding those mostly found in Ireland. This topic does beg the question, does tradition ever limit development? Catholicism and religion in general are very rooted in tradition, although changes have been made over time. Vatican II was one of the most noteworthy times when major changes were made, such as the orientation of mass, certain prayers, how one may receive the Eucharist, and the vernacular in which the mass was said. But these changes were declared in a very official capacity, do prayer cards need the same type of approval in order to be changed?

Gravestones also have been fairly regular for years, although the Lake View cemetery in Cleveland, OH shows that not all gravestones are cookie cutter. Some are shaped like your standard tombstone, but others are shaped like a man sitting on a bench, a jukebox, and even a lion! It’s difficult to realize they are gravestones at first glance due to their unconventional shapes, but exploring the cemetery to find them is rather entertaining. I can’t say that uniquely shaped gravestones is a common trend, though.

Bolger does misstep at some points in her essay. Not only does she mention but shows a variety of prayer cards, from ones with religious iconography that are folded like a card to double sided laminated ones featuring photos of the deceased. While Bolger has a point that for the most part the design of the cards has remained fairly unchanged, there have been some developments in design over the years. Memorial and prayer cards have a way of bringing comfort to family and friends of the deceased. Personally, I have a drawer of them at home and there is something quite lovely in looking through and remembering those who have been important in my life. It is also a way of documenting dates or calculating ages. When my great aunt passed away at nearly 103, it was fascinating to imagine how she saw the world change since her birth in 1911. There is something nice about all of them appearing, for the most part, the same because I am able to immediately know what they are when I see them. If I attended a wake or a funeral and the memorial cards looked drastically different, I’m not sure I would know what they were. Even Figure 12 (the 2002 card) in Bolger’s essay does not immediately strike me as a memorial card. Its contemporary design makes it look more like a snapshot than a remembrance card.

Bolger’s article seems to focus most strongly on the Irish Catholic tradition. Perhaps there is more tension surrounding maintaining a sense of serious tradition in Ireland verses in other parts of the world? Religious art and imagery has been deeply rooted in tradition, but at the same time changes to the art have been incredibly significant and impactful. For example, the early Renaissance, around 1200’s, showed a dramatic shift in their religious art. Pre-12th Century depicted Jesus as upright on the cross to demonstrate His triumph over death. But in the 13th Century artists such as Cimabue and Giotto started creating images of Jesus suffering on the cross, bent over and in pain, conveying a more human Christ. This change represented a dramatic change in how God related to human beings and the views emulating from the church.

So many other forms of printed ephemera have gone through changes and developments, in fact many catalogues, magazines, and brochures make efforts to re-brand design, change layout, or switch printing techniques. Wedding invitations in particular have changed over time, and there is some divided opinions whether or not this is for the better. Those who have chosen a digital invite are often scoffed at by more traditional family members, and even the lack of an inner and outer envelope can be means for a tisked tongue. But other forms of print have had less changes, such as the newspaper and playbills. These have, for the most part, remained fairly regular in style and format.

If something hasn’t changed in years, maybe that means there is no need for it to change? Eye glasses, violins, even scissors aren’t all too different today than they were 100 years ago. In fact, several years ago Google invented the Google Glass, although this technological advancement to the eye glass didn’t catch on all too well. Although one of the most interesting times in which modern technological advances ended up countering the effectiveness of an object was the “Jabulani” ball in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Adidas used 3D panels to create a perfectly spherical ball which they claimed to be more aerodynamic. Instead, the players disliked using the ball as they found it to be unpredictable. Perhaps memorial cards aren’t so dissimilar. Maybe changing their design will work against what is integral to their significance.

It’s interesting that Bolger feels those who move away from traditional cards are trying to reject the traditional ideals of death, or at least that’s what I got from her essay. On the whole I wasn’t sure if she had the strongest argument that prayer cards haven’t changed at least a bit. Or maybe that really is what the essay conveys, that there hasn’t been much change because some things in this world don’t need to be changed. What seems most ironic regarding prayer or remembrance cards is that the person featured on the card is likely to have absolutely no say in the design of that card. Unless they have spoken to their loved ones prior, the image, text, and design will be entirely up to the decision of either a family member or, as does happen, the funeral parlour. There is something a bit sad in the distance that this creates between the deceased and the card memorialising them.

References

Bolger, M.A. (2011) ‘The Ephemera of Eternity: The Irish Catholic Memorial Card as Material Culture’, in King, L and Sisson, E. (eds) Ireland, Design and Visual Culture: Negotiating Modernity, 1922 – 1992. Cork: Cork University Press, pp.235-247.

Links

https://twentytwowords.com/brazils-president-accuses-leonardo-dicaprio-of-funding-amazon-fires/?astest=true

https://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/football/06/02/football.jabulani.ball.world.cup/index.html

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O18120/the-crucifixion-with-the-virgin-oil-painting-sotio-alberto/

Seminar 5 - Borders, Liminality, Transgressions (click to comment)

Mary Ann Bolger - The Ephemera of Eternity: The Irish Catholic Memorial Card as Material Culture