Grave / Grebh / Græf

Abstract

Through this paper and research project, I explore the question of how the resting place of the body can become a catalyst for growth. Grave/Grebh/ Græf explores the potential for metamorphosis and renewal through the liveliness of decay. My practice originally centred on the corpse itself, tracking the decay of individual animals found on the roadside to try to capture the last residual trace of the spirit after the body has gone. I am now searching for these traces in the vegetation that grows from their resting places. Grave/Grebh/Græf examines various burial sites through observational drawing and grieving rituals. The drawings require intense periods, focus, respect, and reverence, paralleling the intention of the rosary prayers or other devotional obits repetitively performed by parishioners to preserve the memory of the deceased. Gallagher and Hiller (2011, p. 17) said, “That we who are still alive must perform obligatory tasks to care for the needy dead is a powerful, nearly universal human belief.” We choose to notice and attend to the familiar through that attention. To notice is to care.