Small Shrines for Common Deaths
A paper pulp altar by artist and death worker Meghan Allynn Johnson.
Program Details
Small Shrines for Common Deaths is a site-responsive installation honoring roadside animal deaths that often go unmourned. Small hand-formed shrines installed among the trees of the cemetery create a dialogue between the remembered dead and the forgotten dead, inviting reflection on whose deaths receive ritual attention and whose are left unmarked. The work explores mortality, decomposition, renewal and remembrance as shared ecological experiences across species.
Location
Cemetery on Slotty Rd.
Prairie du Sac, WI 53578
(Specific location to be shared)
- Installation
- Outside
Contributor
Meghan Allynn Johnson (she/her)
https://www.madisondeathstudio.com/
Instagram: @madison.death.studio
Meghan Allynn Johnson is an artist, educator, and death worker based in Madison, Wisconsin. Her work explores grief, mortality, ritual, and the role of art in helping people navigate loss, uncertainty, and transformation.
She is the founder and director of Madison Death STUDIO + Bookshop, an artist-run project exploring community-based death care. Through creative practice, teaching, and community organizing, she investigates how art can function as a form of cultural care—creating spaces for meaning-making, ritual, and collective engagement with mortality.
Prior to this work, Johnson served as Director of David Krut Projects in New York, where she curated dozens of exhibitions focused on contemporary African art and printmaking and supported museum exhibitions for artists including William Kentridge and Aida Muluneh. She completed the Nine Keys School of Death Arts Apprenticeship with Narinder Bazen in 2024 and is currently a faculty member with Nine Keys.
Meghan holds a BFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. Her death work has been featured on Wisconsin Public Radio, The Isthmus, The Cap Times, Madison Magazine, BRAVA, ArtDose, and other publications. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally and is featured in Singular/Serial: Contemporary Monotype and Monoprint.