Re:living Weekend at Granton Hub Friday 30th September – Sunday 2 October
For Call for Artist and Makers, please scroll down
The Re:living Weekend is a response to our human need to talk, walk, remember, and make art about the ever-present experiences of death, grief and loss in our lives. Whether we are grieving for a close friend, pet or family member; concerned about the loss of bird, insect or plant habitats and other changes to our climate; affected by war; or managing on-going / one-off life events around relationship, work and/or home loss, coming together with others to focus, share, or simply be with our feelings is supportive.
Programme
30 Sep Walkshop (2-4pm)
30 Sep Memory Art Workshop (4.30-6.30pm)
1 Oct Exhibition (11am-4pm
1 Oct Death Cafe (6.30-8pm)
2 Oct Exhibition (11am – 12noon) and 4.30-6.30pm
2 Oct Grief Circle and Mandala (12.15-2.15)
Venue
All activities will take place in or around Granton Hub (Madelvic House), Granton Park Avenue, Edinburgh EH15 1HS.
Booking
You may like to engage with one or more events, or all of them.
Please book via Eventbrite or tamsinlgrainger@gmail.com. All events are free although donations (to cover costs) are welcome.
With Bea Denton (London) and Tamsin Grainger (Granton)
Bea is an artist and educator whose practice explores ideas around death and loss, faith and ritual. Photography, printmaking, found materials and lost images are intrinsic to her creative process. She graduated from UAL with Distinction in MA Fine Art Printmaking, and has exhibited widely, including publicly-sited work. She won the 2009 Creekside Open prize selected by Jenni Lomax; the 2007 Deptford X MacDonald Egan Award for Public Art, and the 2002 Ardizzone Prize (Major) for Printmaking. She has taught and managed courses at Arts University Bournemouth, UAL (Camberwell, London College of Communication and Central Saint Martins), at EBAC in Brazil and Artslink in China. She is a Trustee for Lewisham Education Arts Network (LEAN) and a member of the Artist’s Group, Throes of Grief.
Tamsin is a community artist (No Birds Land, Trinity Tunnel; The Wall, Western Breakwater), complementary therapy practitioner, session leader, and author of Death and Loss in Shiatsu Practice (published by Singing Dragon Press).
Re:living walkshop and memory workshop
We welcome everyone, whatever age, ability, status or gender. The walk- and workshop will be conducted In English. Please note that the walkshop will be fully accessible, however the Granton Hub is not fully accessible. We do have a portable ramp to allow wheelchair and powerchair users to get into the building, which you will have access to, and once in the building there is level access but no there is no wheelchair accessible toilet.
Walkshop: in which participants will be taken on a prescribed route around the area immediate to the Granton Hub (may include the garden, community orchard and adjoining car park/wilded area, the Waterfront Avenue, Forthquarter Park, Granton Harbour, or Shore Road).
Participants will be invited to bring an object (or image) that speaks to them of absence and/or loss, to help channel thoughts and memories. This will be something small enough to hold in the hand, or put into a bag or back pack while walking. During the walk, we will be facilitating creative activities, so the object shouldn’t inhibit creativity.
During the Walkshop, participants will be invited to walk, sometimes in silence, and to respond to the environment and to their personal experience and thoughts about death, loss and grief through drawing, writing, recording, performance etc. There will be times to stop and draw, to record sounds, to photograph, to write or to perform.
Workshop: will take place at Granton Hub after the Walkshop, and will begin with group reflection and discussion about experiences and feelings from the Walkshop.
During the Workshop, participants will be asked to witness and listen to each other, and are encouraged to share and talk about the drawings/photographs/sounds/writing that they made during the Walkshop. This is not a critique, and we do not expect participants to have any previous art and design experience or qualification.
Following this discussion, you will be invited to draw/write/record/photograph in response to your own and/or others work and shared experiences. Transformation is a key element in this Workshop - making new multi-layered works that materialise grief through transformation of images, words, sounds etc. Participants will create new works using simple monoprint and collage techniques, that will be layered to form new composite works that will be exhibited at Granton Hub on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd October.
All materials will be provided.
Please note that there will be a half hour break inside between the Walkshop and Workshop for refreshments (provided, though contributions gratefully received).
Re:living Exhibition: Call for Artists and makers
1st October 11am - 4pm; 2nd October 2022 10am and 12noon and 2.30-4.30pm at the Granton Hub (Madelvic House), Granton Park Avenue, Edinburgh EH15 1HS.
We are inviting artist submissions for the Re:living Exhibition that address themes of Death, Grief, Loss, and Re:living. There is no prescribed media for submitted work, and can include art/design/craft.
All work submitted should be suitable for this Granton pop-up Community Centre setting. You can see details of the room here https://grantonhub.org/ including the Sphinx Room which size is 8.75m x 4.7m. The ceiling is 3.3m high.
Please send a digital image / brief description of the submitted artwork (no more than 3 items per person) with related web address (including contact details and social media), suggested selling price, and short bio (50 words max). Publicity photos/short video of you and your work will be required if selected.
A 20% commission will be taken by Granton Hub on all individual works sold, and fees payable for the work sold will be made by bank transfer within 2 weeks of the close of the exhibition.
Your work should be no bigger than A2 size (or thereabouts) and will be either wall, table (a basic refectory type table), or floor-mounted (note: there is a carpet, so no water, earth, sand etc unless completely contained). If wall-based, work should be framed and include mirror plates or D rings.
Please include the running time (in minutes) for video and audio works, and a short description of the piece. If video or audio work is selected, artists will need to supply playback equipment and ensure that it is PAT tested, with proof of compliance PRIOR to the exhibition opening.
We have a screen and moveable seating available for public showings. Artists will need to bring their own plinth(s) if needed.
If your work is selected, it must be delivered directly to the venue on Friday 30 September at 1pm or 6.30pm, and collected on Sunday 2nd October between 4.30 and 6.30pm. Please note that this is a group exhibition of mixed media work in a non-formal gallery setting (blue carpet, walls painted either pale green or white), and will be exhibited between on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd October only. You are encouraged to attend and engage with the public during these times.
It is your responsibility to insure your work and neither we, nor the Granton Hub, can take any liability for its loss or damage.
It will be assumed that the organisers will be able to take photos during the event which can be used on social media and websites. Credits will be included where feasible.
We regret that Madelvic House is not fully accessible. We do have a portable ramp to allow wheelchair and powerchair users to get into the building, which you will have access to, and once in the building there is level access, but no there is no wheelchair accessible toilet.
Deadline for submissions: 9th September 2022
We will make our decision by: 16th September 2022
Final photos and other information will be required by: 23rd September 2022
Address for submissions: tamsinlgrainger@gmail.com
Death Café
Death Café is a group meeting in person in Edinburgh where people can come to talk about death.
Talking about death is not something that we can all do with our families and friends, and yet it is something which is so often on our minds.
At the Death Café, there is an emphasis on listening and sharing, and the focus is that life is finite and we want to talk about that. We all have interests and concerns about bereavement, loss, grief or dying, especially at this time when we are dealing with the Coronavirus and fears of war.
Previous participants described the event as "healthy" and their feelings at the end as "hopeful" and "grateful" .
Pre-booking is essential. There are 36 spaces.
For more information about the Death Café movement, see this website https://deathcafe.com/what/
Our aim is for this Death Café to be accessible, respectful and confidential. There is no set agenda, no objective or theme, and it is neither a grief support group nor a counselling session. There is no intention by the organisers to lead participants to any conclusions, buy any products or take any course of action. Death Cafes are not religious, and are always ‘not for profit’ events. There will, however, be a donations box for the room rental. Any further funds raised will be passed on to St Columba's Hospice nearby.
“The goal of the movement is to enable people to share their fears and hopes in a fashion which does not have to treat death as a taboo – that is, as something that needs to be addressed through euphemisms or abandoned in silence.” Maddie Denton, Reflections of the Self: Death Café and the Search for Personal Meaning (An exploration of death in modern society).
Grief Circle and Mandala
This meeting will take the form of a floor-seated circle of participants, a ritual to contain our grief, a structure within which to allow feelings to flow at a manageable rate.
With respect and compassion, a sharing circle will be facilitated and a safe space held for you to bring your grief and memories with a view to Re:live (both the past and in the future). Held in the same room as the Death Café (the evening before) and the Re:living Art Exhibition.
After the circle, we will go outside to find natural materials for the Mandala. You can also include materials that you bring with you.
Back inside, you will be gently directed to create your own personal mandala on a piece of cloth on the floor.
At the end there will be a Closing Ritual for this session and the Mandala, and for the whole weekend.
The Mandala will be temporary in the same way that life is. A photograph will be taken for you to keep if you want it as a record, and then it will be dismantled at the end of the session.
Please bring a cushion and blanket with you, as well as any items or mementoes you may like to include in your Mandala. We will supply tea lights and pieces of cloth on which to make your Mandala.
Image: Tamsin Grainger