IT MATTERS HOW WE GO:
A VESSEL FOR COLLECTIVE LOSS & GRIEF
ANNOUNCEMENT
Tanzan wrote sixty postal cards on the last day
of his life, and asked an attendant to mail them. Then
he passed away.
The cards read:
I am departing from this world.
This is my last announcement.
Tanzan.
July 27, 1892*
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.
IT MATTERS HOW WE GO: A VESSEL FOR COLLECTIVE LOSS & GRIEF
Comfort Station
June 5-26 2021
EXHIBITION 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 Jenik (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
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
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 | Virtual