IT MATTERS HOW WE GO: A VESSEL FOR COLLECTIVE LOSS & GRIEF
Chelsea Ross
IT MATTERS HOW WE GO: A VESSEL FOR COLLECTIVE LOSS & GRIEF is an offering and an invitation presented by artist and curator Chelsea Ross (she/they).
In the light and shadows of the last year and a half (and ongoing) of so much, incomprehensible loss, compounded by an inability to gather as communities, IT MATTERS HOW WE GO: A VESSEL FOR COLLECTIVE LOSS & GRIEF transforms Comfort Station’s historic building into a community space dedicated to death, dying, and loss of all kinds.
Within the VESSEL, Ross shares a selection of personal photographic work created between the deaths of her mother in 2017 and her dog in 2020. Alongside her work, The VESSEL also features an altar designed and constructed in collaboration with Jeffrey Michael Austin. As well as The Artists Grief Deck (in English and Spanish), produced by artist and death doula Adriene Jenik.
Visitors are invited and encouraged to add their own memento mori, objects, images, and ephemera of their own losses of all kinds--family, friends, pets, relationships, jobs, dreams, opportunities, identities... At the end of the residency, a burial ceremony for all the items left within the VESSEL will be held on the Comfort Station lawn.
Chelsea Ross (b. 1983, Chicago, IL) is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Chicago. She explores ideas and practices of community, collaboration, identity, design, and all forms of liberation through photography, curation, writing, and movement. She holds a Master of Art in Design criticism from the School of Architecture at UIC. While her practice is informed by architecture and design thinking, she works decidedly in the realm of art for its elasticity and more direct connection to contemporary culture. Chelsea is planning to become a death doula to deepen her interest in the practices of death and dying.
She prefers curves over corners. While she has lived on the border of Humboldt Park and Logan Square for 15 years, she spends significant time alone in the desert, talking to as few people as possible.
ANCILLARY PROGRAMMING
DEATH NESTING & HOLISTIC DEATH PRACTICES
How do we prepare for our own deaths and the death of loved ones? What options are available to us? How do structural inequities affect access to holistic death care? How do we honor the intersections of death care and ecology responsibility?
A conversation with death doulas Adriene Jenick (California), Emmy Colon (Chicago), and Anna Swenson of Recompose Life will explore practices around death and dying that are empowered by knowledge and value aligned.
June 16 | 6pm-8pm CST | Zoom
YOGA NIDRA WITH ADAM GROSSI
Yoga Nidra is a meditative practice that facilitates deep rest and relaxation. Traditionally, the nidra is a way of practicing and preparing for one’s own death by releasing the mind and surrendering to a deep state of consciousness. Adam Grossi is an artist, writer, and experienced yoga practitioner who will guide us through an expansive nidra dedicated to release, connection, and transmutation.
June 25 | 7pm-9pm | Comfort Station & Twitch
CLOSING BURIAL CEREMONY
At the end of the residency, all of the items left within the VESSEL will be buried in the lawn of Comfort Station. We will dig a hole in the ground, place all of the items in the hole, put the earth back into the ground, and plant native flowers in the soil. Burial allows for an intentional release and a slow, digestive transmutation of material and energy. Alyssa Martinez will perform an original poem to close the ceremony.
June 26 | 2pm-4pm | Comfort Station
*Japanese Zen Koan