The major Festival exhibition Memento mori deals with themes of death, mortality and grief and the quest for immortality. The show developed out of a call for submissions called "Fibre Inspired". It was based on a trend Festival Curator, Gareth Bate, had observed in contemporary art towards creating work using the techniques and aesthetic of fibre, but using non-fibre materials. He was struck by how radically different these submissions were. They were really dark both physically and thematically. Why are these artists choosing to use fibre construction techniques, but replacing the fragility, impermanence and tactility of fibre materials with hard, 'permanent', and difficult to manipulate materials such as stone, bronze, metal, wood, bark, ceramic, plastic, wire, solid paint and wax? Mummification is a central theme. This process attempts to preserve and make immortal the ephemeral body. We invite you to descend into this underworld environment. The exhibition is set up in thematic opposition to the exhibition De rerum natura (On The Nature of Things).