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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Eight: Using symbols and metaphors to express meaning > Vault, Cuenca Cemetery, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
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12-SEP-2011

Vault, Cuenca Cemetery, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011

There are thousands of burial vaults, very similar to this one, stacked in Cuenca’s main cemetery. This one, however, is different. Someone has left an odd memorial offering within the arched opening. Its red label stands out as an incongruous symbol of pleasures formerly shared, but now lost forever. The bottle is empty.

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Phil Douglis10-Dec-2011 00:08
Thanks for adding such meaning here, Iris. I was thinking about empty bottles, while you are thinking about an incongruous advertising slogan here. In either case, it gets one to think. And that was my purpose.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)09-Dec-2011 01:31
A 1976 slogan for Coca Cola was "Coke Adds Life". Given this slogan, your empty Coke bottle resting on a burial vault ledge adds another dimension of incongruity to this image.
Phil Douglis14-Oct-2011 23:13
Thanks Carol and Rose. I saw the bottle not as litter, but as a token of shared pleasures left upon a tomb by a friend or loved one. Either way, it works as social commentary.
sunlightpix13-Oct-2011 20:13
Nothing is certain in this world but death and coca-cola!
Carol E Sandgren12-Oct-2011 21:58
Pleasure spent, now it's just litter. An interesting comment on our society...
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