suffused mourning: incense

Burning

Every night, around 1 am, a single stick of incense is burned in the darkest and quietest part of the night. During that burning, I medidate on a unique mourned being (human or non-human) while I watch the incense smoke within a glass dome, periodically releasing it into the air. A different kind of incense is selected for burning each night. I observe the entire stick burning down to ash. Once extinguished, I remove the ash and set it aside, replacing it in the dome with a pristine white handkerchief. The handkerchief is left in the dome overnight to be suffused with the scent of the incense.

Inscribing

In the morning, the handkerchief is released from the dome, and the ash of the particular incense burned is mixed with a fabric medium. Onto the handkerchief I paint the initials of the mourned being, the day of the burning and the number of days since my husband's death. The handkerchief is then hung on the studio wall, day by day, with the fragrances of the different incenses intermingling and fading as the suffusing nightly action continues. The paint made of ash is also used daily to record the specific kind of incense that was burned for each mourned being, forming an olfactory memory link between a specific scent and the mourned being. 

Performing

At the end of each week, a ritual performace is conducted wherein a stick of each of the different incenses that had been burned over the previous week is laid out. These are lit in sequence and combined in a brazier. The intermingled incenses, each representing one mourned being, are walked out into the forest along with a poem by my husband, written in chalk upon a piece of bark. 

Arraying

Once the 13 handkerchiefs were completed, the work was hung on the barbed wire fence outside the studio, so that the initials could be read in sequence and the fragrances released by the wind.

Staging

Spaces for mourning are created in the Bundanon studio and in the later reconfiguration of the handkerchief sequence when restaged at Articulate Project Space. 

Extending

The project continues with an offer to others to undertake the ritual for their own mourned beings. Following the staging of this work in Articulate Project Space, one-on-one sessions are made available to reserve, to be conducted in a private garden setting. The participants will have the opportunity to focus on their own mourned being and paint a handkerchief with ash, which they can then take away for solace.