Memento memorial

Among the events that dominated Australian media coverage in 2018 were the horrific deaths in Melbourne of comedian Eurydice Dixon and Pelligrini’s Espresso Bar co-owner Sisto Malaspina. For those of us who are not immediate family or friends of the deceased, our memories of these tragedies – as with many others like them – are of the recurrent news streams of grieving communities laying flowers and tributes to the victims at public sites connected to their passing. These temporary memorials are ephemeral embellishments of public places made poignant by the grief and human loss that caused them. Quite unlike their