Case Study: Grief is a Collage Artist in Residency

Grief is a Collage was a five-day interactive arts residency exploring grief through collage, storytelling and community participation. Developed in response to the stigma surrounding grief and healthy expression of grief. It explored the loss of people, relationships, health, identity, work, certainty and the lives we thought we were building.

The exhibition was built around the idea that grief is made from fragments: memories, objects, words, sounds and experiences that continue to travel with us. Throughout the residency, visitors were invited to contribute to an evolving body of work that explored life before grief, life after grief and everything in between.

Objective

The project aimed to create a welcoming, creative space where people could explore and express grief through art and storytelling. Rather than presenting a finished exhibition, the residency encouraged visitors to become part of the work itself, contributing their own experiences to a growing community collage.

The project also sought to broaden public conversations about grief by recognising the many forms it can take and demonstrating that creativity can provide another way of understanding and sharing those experiences.

Execution

The residency combined original artworks with interactive installations that grew throughout the week.

Emotional Baggage documented my own life across three periods of time, exploring the different forms grief has taken throughout my life through collage, writing and collected objects.

Wash Your Grief Away was a tea and rosehip-based wash that explored ritual and care through a sensory artwork.

The Grief Cycle illustrated the stages of grief we move through as our experiences and understanding continue to change over time.

The Void was a spray-painted collaborative collage built from emotions submitted by visitors.

and The Void II expanded this into a large string installation where visitors added collages, artworks and written contributions throughout the residency. The work also included a series of interactive emotion dials that visitors could adjust.

Rage Wall gave visitors a physical way to release emotion by throwing foam balls shaped like the word WORLD at a target.

Tea with Grief – a special blend of tea was created to invite people to stay and chat about their grief with customised table.

Alongside the installations, visitors could create their own collages during a dedicated collage workshop and through drop-in participation across the residency. The week also included an Ideas Club discussion session and a live performance by Singing Contralto, bringing together art, conversation and performance as different ways of engaging with grief.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to the exhibition, members of the public were invited to share their own grief stories online. These stories informed elements of the installation and became part of the broader conversation held throughout the week.

Results

Grief is a Collage was delivered as:

• A five-day interactive installation.
• A community collage workshop.
• An Ideas Club discussion.
• A live performance by Singing Contralto.

Before the exhibition opened, 17 people shared their grief stories online, providing personal reflections that informed the residency.

Throughout the five days, the installation attracted multiple visitors, with the evolving artworks and interactive elements drawing attention from people passing by on the street and encouraging them to enter the space.

By combining personal storytelling with community participation, the residency created an evolving exhibition where visitors were able to contribute their own experiences of grief through art, writing and interaction, building a collective collage of life before, during and after grief.

This residency would not have been possible without the amazing support of the Imaginarium venue and the Shellharbour City Council Artist in Residency program.