Zoë Roiati-Antonucci

Cyborg Egg Funeral

A sad day amongst all the other little cyborg eggs out there...Audio: Por Ti Volarè by Endo Rivera

“ My piece is titled “Cyborg Egg Funeral.” It is made from an assemblage of pieces including an egg shell, egg carton, fake flowers, Cadbury egg wrappers, beads, and a rosary. My piece is a narrative where the last egg of its kind has passed away and on the edge of its coffin stand 6 cyborg egg pallbearers. The ambient music being played is Endo Rivera’s “Por Ti Volarè.” Donna Haraway’s “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene” inspired me to complete this piece because of its talk about making kin. Eggs are something many of us humans consume every day. They are also often the representation of new emerging life. When contents are taken out of the egg and consumed, you are left with this empty lifeless cracked shell that is always just thrown away or composted. The egg itself is very similar to humans when we pass away. Our so called “soul” transcends into the afterlife and we are left with our empty shell of a body that is then embalmed and acknowledged in a procession. What if we gave the empty shells of our eggs a similar service? Planning a funeral is like planning a wedding. There are so many unwritten rules that everyone automatically follows like; how many pallbearers there need to be, who walks first behind the coffin, which family member presents the eulogy? By adding humour, I made this process a little more silly and relaxed. This funeral is supposed to make people laugh even though everyone automatically associates funerals with sadness and mourning. With the poorly put together coffin and the dramatic music in the background, the viewer also can’t help but feel bad for the poor little deceased egg. ”