Tilly Johnson BA (Hons) Three Dimensional Design 2020
The Grief Series is a project I developed throughout my final year. It started through photo and video series, describing emotions through body poses and interactions with objects. This developed with sewn images that exaggerated the emotions depicted in the photo/video.
Purple
This object was born through expressing the heavy, weighted feeling of grief. As if you are operating every day with a weight on your head, never realising how freely you were to walk before. Free from the difficulty between wanting to be rested until the weight is lifted and not wanting to miss out on any more life. These objects convey the emotion visually as well as inflicting the emotion physically - if you wear the purple object for an extended period of time, the heaviness is transferred onto the neck and head, forcing a discomforting pain.
Blue
This object was born through expressing the comfortability of grief. The relief of all other worries, thoughts, feelings and desires. The ability to carry my grief daily was the enabling act to keep it close; keep it continuing. This object was an experience of recognising this place of grief. The warm, soft touch of the velvet wrapped around your body; keeping you snug and contained in its hug. This object is to be completed.
Yellow
This object was born through expressing the feeling of future happiness. The feeling was recognised by imagining possibilities. This object was an experience of recognising this place of grief as a point of exit from the physical and emotional pain whilst the memory of the loved one stayed. The yellow object is worn on the front of the body and inflates with the wind in front of your face. A huge yellow parachute holding onto your body, exaggerating the power of the wind and breath. This object is to be completed.
This project has been about feeling emotions physically rather than speaking or rationalising mentally. As I am expressing the emotions and not the story, this makes the project open for an experience to a wider audience.