A Sense of grief

The questions raised in this piece consider how a sensory experience can expose new understandings of grief, trauma and loss. Creative expression is used as a language to immerse one in the sensation of an experience rather than representing an event. It is sensory experience or sensory stimuli that provokes deep thought and this is the intention in my current work.

'A sense of grief' consists of two mixed media objects and a draped eight metre length of paper. The objects are tall hand built white porcelain with found objects at the top of them. Although these objects hold remnants of their origin, their context is indistinguishable. The paper is a more visible bridging of production and installation. It holds the trace of my body's movement (performance) in oil which is activated by light. The process of production was ritualistic and liminal, in that it was founded by intention with an open ended outcome. 

As a reference point grieving in western cultures can be ignored by social structures, particularly when circumstances around grief are complicated. Here lies the space in which art plays a role. The life of those left mourning have been 'disfigured', and art that can stimulate a sensory experience as a means of learning and acknowledgement.