Death special: Ashes to art

London artist Jason Shulman’s unusual memorial to his father

Though there is no God – dead is dead, dust to dust – there are ways to give someone continuity after death. You can build a pyramid, plant a rose or shoot them into space. But for me few of these address the wonder of life. The idea of how I would commemorate my father came to me when I collected his ashes, which at first sight looked like fire-grate ashes, dead and grey. I extracted the iron using a magnet and noticed…