The Shrine is conceived as a passage for grief: a space to let go of the world as we know it, translating sorrow into energy through sound and text. Inspired by Freud’s idea of redirecting the desire for something lost by transforming it into something else, the project synthesizes sorrow into other forms of energy within the Shrine. Music-thanatologist Catherine Delong performs eco-thanatology on site for the rapidly disappearing Great Salt Lake, with her piece remixed by the UK duo Silo Portem using sounds from Resonant Bodies, an instrument made from an ash tree by Julia Adzuki: Listen to Climate Thanatology sound piece 

Inspired by Japanese Ema shrines, texts of hope, fear, memory, and reflections on loss—contributed by “Death Café” participants in Utah, New York, and Copenhagen and written on suminagashi paper made with local water by Lana Neilson—are placed in the Shrine as growing leaves.

The materials — eelgrass and hand-painted vitreous enamel — highlight ecological and geological affinities. Both are rooted in the earth’s minerals and articulate a dialogue between organic cycles, mineral permanence, and growth. Tulle curtains at the entrance and exit of the Shrine, inspired by Victorian mourning shawls and the Mexican rebozo de luto, frame the space, fostering reflection, togetherness, and memory. Tulle references the Victorian tradition of black mourning shawls, which provided a physical space for grief and protection against negative thoughts, creating distance from the community; here it is used in color to foster a sense of togetherness. Similarly, the subtle scent of salted hay emitted from the eelgrass embeds memory through smell, echoing the Mexican mourning shawl, whose fibers are impregnated with herbs such as rosemary and moss, or soaked in lily water or cacao juice, connecting memory and scent, life and death, and signifying continuity.