suffused mourning: incense

Suffused mourning is a work in several stages

Burning

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

Inscribing

In the morning, the handkerchief was released from the dome, and the ash of the particular incense burned was mixed with a fabric medium. Onto the handkerchief I painted the initials of the mourned being, the day of the burning and the number of days since my husband's death. The handkerchief was then hung on the studio wall, day by day, with the fragrances of the different incenses intermingling and fading as the suffusing nightly action continued. The paint made of ash was 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 was conducted wherein a stick of each of the different incenses that had been burned over the previous week was laid out. These were lit in sequence and combined in a brazier. The intermingled incenses, each representing one mourned being, were 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 were 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 will be made available to reserve, to be conducted in a private garden setting. The participants will have the opportunity to focus on their mourned being and paint a handkerchief with ash, which they can then take away for solace. 

burning the incense

inscribing

arraying

staging