A Farewell to Lichen
Artistic practices for mourning and attunement – poetry recital performance.
When a profound loss occurs, the opportunity to convey a meaningful farewell—to acknowledge the significance of the relationship—may also pass us by. A Farewell to Lichen is an artistic enquiry into loss and imaginative practices of mourning for and with the natural world. Quiet rituals and actions, performed on the streets and in the parks where I live, become speculative rehearsals for the end of humanity as well as gestures of hope for the continuation of life on this planet. My dream is that lichen will prevail.
At this time of ecological devastation and catastrophic species loss the work explores the role of mourning rituals and anticipatory grief as a means of trying to comprehend such losses while also communing tenderly with the earthly places we precariously co-inhabit.
Thank you to Wil Normyle for accompanying me on the readings, for our conversations on life and death, and for filming the performances.