Wellington - A New Zealand artist is planning to exhibit his father's ashes, saying he was "much more useful dead than he ever was alive", a report said on Thursday.
Nigel Madden, from Napier in the North Island, previously exhibited photographs of his father Neville, an alcoholic and one-time radio announcer, lying on a mortuary slab after suffering a fatal heart attack.
The photographs shown last year in the Norsewood Art Awards offered an insight into his dysfunctional relationship with his father, Madden said.
This year Madden plans to display his father's ashes in a pewter urn, he told the Dominion Post newspaper.
"So, my father's remains function as a symbol and a stand-in for art," he said.
Madden quoted Spanish painter Pablo Picasso as saying "in art one must kill one's father".
"It's not often that you get human remains to work with," Madden added.
The work would be for sale for NZ$2 000 dollars (about R10 335), though the artist admitted he was not hopeful of finding a buyer.