Register here to reserve your spot for Workshop #2!
When artists make work about death, we are affirming our relationships to the living world. Doing this well requires that our studio practice be focused on asking questions, seeking connection, and inviting collaboration – with the living and the dead, with the past and the future, with the human and non-human.
These three stand-alone workshops will look at many different ways to engage with death, mortality, and grief through art and community. Artists will find new ways to work with these topics in their own personal studio practice, and do so with the utmost respect and care for themselves, their subjects, and their audience.
We will read and discuss short pieces of writing, look at artworks, and experiment with creative writing as critical tools for the visual artist. You need not be an artist to join us! Readings are available for free in advance here: https://www.burialblankets.net/art-for-the-living-and-the-dead
Masks will be required at this event. Comfort Station will provide extra masks, as well as a HEPA air purifier for the space.
Workshop #2:
Burial Art and the Affirmation of Life (with Anders Zanichkowky)
9/16/2024
6:00 - 9:00 PM
Since time immemorial, every culture of people on earth has venerated the bodies of our beloved dead. We do this through art, care, ritual, and architecture. Knowledge of our mortality is universal to the human experience and lies at the root of all religion and philosophy, and much of our material culture In this workshop we will look at some ways that people throughout history have used visual art to honor the dead and the past, and how this is also an affirmation of life, the living, and the future. We will also talk about how artists navigate the ethical and political concerns that come up when making work about these topics.
Artists
Briggita Nördstrom (funeral palls and baby blankets), Nirmal Raja, “Material Remains.” “Ghost Bikes” (International project based in U.S., 2003 - present), Tourmaline, “Atlantic is a Sea of Bones” (short film). Bryan Stevenson and Equal Justice Initiative’s “Community Remembrance Project.”
Teju Cole, “My Grandmother’s Shroud”
Dagmawi Woubshet, “Looking for the Dead: Disprized Mourners and the Work of Compounding Loss.”
Elias Canetti, selections from “Crowds and Power” on Mourning Crowds and Invisible Crowds
This program is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Terra Foundation for American Art, and is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
