“If anybody could have saved me it would have been you”*

‘Remnants Of A Suicide’ explores the aftermath of the sudden, deliberate death of a loved one and the slow and bewildering process of grief and adjustment as we paradoxically try to make space in our lives to accommodate this sudden non-existence.

Through the filter of loss, we see signs and portents that we could not/ did not see before. Or perhaps a filter has been removed and we finally see the signs that were there all along. We linger in reflection of the traces left behind, the ripples that slowly spread outwards, the questions that will now be left unanswered, the ‘what-ifs, the ‘how-coulds’, the phone number that is still undeleted, the constant pull between presence and absence, the feathers that fall down from the sky.

This mixed media piece contains antique memorial items from the British Victorian tradition in materials that speak of fragility, rarity, translucency and opacity, light and shadow. A fragile glass lachrymatory (a vessel to capture the first tears of mourning) nestles in a bed of silk with embroidered Phoenix in gilt thread (the mythical bird that is reborn from ashes). A set of photographic prints are wrapped in printed raw edged silk that recalls the Tibetan prayer flags that over time release their loose threads on the wind to spread goodwill and compassion over all the land. The silk is secured by a gold and hair necklace intricately woven from the blonde hair of the deceased. Part memory box, part gold leafed casket, part reliquary and a tribute to my dearest friend.

*Extract from Virginia Woolf’s suicide note