Grief Works has come from a long held belief that the relationship between creative and artistic practice and powerful grieving is a real and potent one. Having created The Picnic Among Friends community memorial for over a decade ago, that invited people to come and bring their own creative expression to how they live with, remember and love people who are no longer living.   

I relished the opportunity to ask some people who we have looked after as Funeral Directors, to reflect upon their funeral rites and their grieving. 

With Peter Banki's encouragement, with whom Victoria had collaborated on The Death Festival, (2016-8), Life Rites responded to Brand X creative development seed funding and the conversations with artists and creatives began.

These culminated in 2 nights of immersive performance pieces that challenged how audiences entered into and engaged with the works and how they orientated themselves in the space.inch like we have to orient ourselves to the unfamiliar territory of grief. It wasn’t just the content of the works that spoke to grieving, it was the whole context of the night and how we learn to navigate this very important human experience that comes to most people in the course of their lives. 

The works followed on from one another, some durational, others short, spoken word, movement based, one on film and audio.

Aunty Rhonda Dixon Grovenor opened the nights with a Welcome and a Smoking Ceremony and the Cosmic Nuns hosted the event.

LOVE
by Candy

This is poetry.
A stream of connected consciousness.
I stress that I try to create work that releases hurt in people because experienced alone, pain makes us feeble.
This is a collective experience,
where we explore the human condition,
both dark and in all its brilliance.
We are more resilient than they would lead us to believe,
Self determination means we can achieve.
Conceive a world where empathy and compassion are engrained actions,
Tolerance a practiced passion.
A place where we know it's okay to be weak.
We are fallible,
It's part of what makes us unique.
Perfection's a fallacy.
Most financial wants pure fantasy.
Life's more rich for those not perpetuating agony.
I know that heaviness that comes from being empty,
believe me, I've been broken plenty.
There are parts of my mind I still deny,
If I could tap into that. I'd be the greatest writer that's ever been;
If I could unblock this. I'd be the greatest woman that ever lived.
So lend me your ear, it's redundant now fear.
Lend me your hearts, they're about to be broken open.
The spoken tokens are far more than slogans,
chosen in moments where hope was fading,
but never faded.
This heart never learned to hate,
Instead I choose to create to stimulate debate.
Refuse to remain sedate.
I'll make shade when it gets too hot,
by sharing poetry and song with you,
the important lot.
People have power, it's more true than not,
We don't have to be locked behind divisive lines,
If I was king of the world and all the world was mine,
I'd say above all there's only one law,
and that one law is LOVE.

Floor Cor

Splinter Orchestra @splinterorchestra

Staying with the Mess

Peter Banki @banki.peter

"We are remembering our friend and fellow Splinter Cor Fuhler, 1964 - 2020: Musician, composer, improviser, instrument builder, inventor, visual and sound artist, enigma... Member of Splinter Orchestra for a decade. Still a Cor(e) member. We will be playing some of his instruments."

"Grieving is like a work, like writing a book. Come grief unwork me - the death of my parents!"

Scrolls for The High Priestess & Goddess

Emma Maye Gibson @bettygrumble

"My offering is a meditation on the love and loss of two close mentors and sisters. In working with Grief, I bow to their death transcendence and the ways in which their art and wisdom have fuelled community, legacy and me. I am creating prayer portals for these Goddesses of mythic pleasure and protest. Candy Royalle and Elizabeth Burton lay bare their bodies, hearts and lives, then invited myself and community so generously and intimately into their dying. I thank their bodies and our bodies as we dance, make and witness in their honour."

DOGMAN

Chantel Jurcevic Cabrera @marranublar

"My dad Jon was simultaneously the most glorious and abject person I know, and through his death I inherited a large modern-day sarcophagus filled with the taxidermied and preserved remains of his beloved dog, Brutus. Grief Works offers me a space to channel, dialogue with, and embody this part-gift-part-death narrative, and the wild love and grief that is the legacy of Jon."

Jon's co-creators from Melbourne for the Brutus Cabinet:

- Gerard Geer - Biological Preparator and Skeleton Articulator (and Jon's right hand man). Insta handle: @articulated_imagination

- Ben Carillo (from AJ's Taxidermy) and Timothy Wood - Taxidermists

- Shannon Wood - Cabinet Maker

Stuck in Transition

Olivia Martin-Mcguire @livmartinmcguire

"A purge of words when I was stuck in transition. In an airport with language barriers and a faulty visa. In between countries and borders, moving to China after a tragic family incident. A suspended moment when I let the grief spill out from the edges and creases after clinging and holding on so tightly."

References for Sound Piece:

- 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' - Ocean Vuong

- 'Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction' - Deborah Bird Rose

- 'The Scale of Breathing: Oceanic Writing Workshop' - Alexis Pauline Gumbs

The Cosmic Nuns

Victoria Spence and Sarah Barry were bestowed the name ‘Cosmic Nuns’ at Elizabeth “The Goddess” Burton’s memorial in February 2022. They were twinning it in sparkly sequined kaftans made by Megan Oliver.

End of life doulas and holistic funeral directors who are present in the visible spaces of ceremony, as well as the invisible spaces of the mortuary, laying their hands on and taking care of our dead.

They shimmer the fear out of death by bringing it into everyday conversation, moving grief through all bodies with words, stillness, sensational outfits and dance. A welcome sight for all when navigating the thresholds of grief, life, love and loss. The Cosmic Nuns are honoured to be your hosts for Grief Works this evening.

Life Rites

Life Rites is a team of independent funeral directors, end of life doulas, counsellors and celebrants based in Sydney. Our focused and personalised end-of-life services guide you and your family through end-of-life and after-death care. At our funeral home in Hurstville we have our own, safe on-site mortuary. We also hold an intimate ceremonial space for you to create the experiences that best suit you and your person.

Life Rites would like to thank:

Flying Nun by Brand X for the support of this development.

Paul Osborne for his technical magic and unparalleled generosity.

All the artists for their willingness to step up and participate.

Tony and Jerome from OOTOZ productions for being video cowboys.

Sierra Malone for stills and love.

And all of our dead.