You are invited to the Helen S. Smith Gallery!
Aunna Moriarty
Picking up the Pieces: A Conversation with Grief
An exhibition presented by the Helen S. Smith Gallery
April 1 - May 8, 2025
Artist Talk and reception: Tuesday, May 6, noon
[https://mcusercontent.com/bed55a729f7ad04edae6347fc/_compresseds/3481f2ef-fd33-7b25-e12a-421e1e6972ed.jpg]
Image above: Aunna Moriarty, Shock I, Archival Pigment Print, 2019, 11” x 17”
Picking up the Pieces: A Conversation with Grief showcases a collaborative performance and lens-based body of work which serves as a response to the 7 Stages of Grief: Shock, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Testing, and Acceptance.
The work included in Picking up the Pieces: A Conversation with Grief is part of an on-going, living body of work titled The 7 Stages Grief Project. As I, and my collaborator, Jennifer M. Brown, Seattle-based dancer and textile artist, traded our time in front of and behind the lens, this grouping of 23 photographs and video performance echoes the creation and expansion of psychiatrist Dr. Kubler Ross’s first model of the 5 Stages of Grief which she introduced in 1969: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. Today, various scholars, including Dr. Ross, have since added two additional stages: Shock and Testing. This model can aid in compartmentalizing complex emotions around loss and change.
By performing metaphorical grieving rituals for the camera as both a younger and older body, Jennifer and I signify that grief is universal across time. We may grieve in different ways and the stages may not go in order, but grief is here. There is no timeline for grief. Some stages may last longer than others, and some may repeat. Grief is a becoming. We follow each thread to its source and then trudge back down another and another. It is sentient. It is a continuous spiral up. Sometimes a tornado, more often a pinwheel. Grief knows no bounds. If we surrender to it long enough, the skins we shed grow back new again.
The Helen S. Smith Gallery on Green River College’s main campus was named in honor of the college Foundation’s first President. In addition to being one of the college’s founding members, she was known as a strong advocate for the arts in the community. The Helen S. Smith Gallery is an academic resource for the Green River campus and regional art community. For over 50 years the gallery continues to carry on her legacy as an academic resource to Green River College by presenting compelling and innovative exhibitions featuring emerging and established Northwest Artists throughout the year. The gallery also highlights works by Green River student artists twice annually.
Helen S. Smith Gallery, Green River Collegehttps://www.greenriver.edu/community/art-gallery/index.html
Sarah Dillon Gilmartin, Gallery Director: sdillon@greenriver.eduhttp://mail%20to:%20sdillon@greenriver.edu/
12401 SE 320th St., Auburn, WA 98092
Copyright © 2025 |LIST:COMPANY|, All rights reserved.
|LIST:DESCRIPTION|
Our mailing address is:
|LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
[Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp]https://login.mailchimp.com/signup/email-referral/?aid=bed55a729f7ad04edae6347fc
Tomorrow at noon in the Helen S. Smith Gallery, Aunna Moriarty will talk about her project Picking up the Pieces: A Conversation with Grief. Please join us for the talk and light refreshments. More information about the exhibition is below. It will close on Thursday.
Warmly,
Sarah Dillon Gilmartin
Helen S. Smith Gallery Director
Visual Art Faculty
Green River College
Aunna Moriarty
Picking up the Pieces: A Conversation with Grief
An exhibition presented by the Helen S. Smith Gallery
April 1 - May 8, 2025
Artist Talk and reception: Tuesday, May 6, noon
[https://mcusercontent.com/bed55a729f7ad04edae6347fc/_compresseds/3481f2ef-fd33-7b25-e12a-421e1e6972ed.jpg]
Image above: Aunna Moriarty, Shock I, Archival Pigment Print, 2019, 11” x 17”
Picking up the Pieces: A Conversation with Grief showcases a collaborative performance and lens-based body of work which serves as a response to the 7 Stages of Grief: Shock, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Testing, and Acceptance.
The work included in Picking up the Pieces: A Conversation with Grief is part of an on-going, living body of work titled The 7 Stages Grief Project. As I, and my collaborator, Jennifer M. Brown, Seattle-based dancer and textile artist, traded our time in front of and behind the lens, this grouping of 23 photographs and video performance echoes the creation and expansion of psychiatrist Dr. Kubler Ross’s first model of the 5 Stages of Grief which she introduced in 1969: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. Today, various scholars, including Dr. Ross, have since added two additional stages: Shock and Testing. This model can aid in compartmentalizing complex emotions around loss and change.
By performing metaphorical grieving rituals for the camera as both a younger and older body, Jennifer and I signify that grief is universal across time. We may grieve in different ways and the stages may not go in order, but grief is here. There is no timeline for grief. Some stages may last longer than others, and some may repeat. Grief is a becoming. We follow each thread to its source and then trudge back down another and another. It is sentient. It is a continuous spiral up. Sometimes a tornado, more often a pinwheel. Grief knows no bounds. If we surrender to it long enough, the skins we shed grow back new again.
The Helen S. Smith Gallery on Green River College’s main campus was named in honor of the college Foundation’s first President. In addition to being one of the college’s founding members, she was known as a strong advocate for the arts in the community. The Helen S. Smith Gallery is an academic resource for the Green River campus and regional art community. For over 50 years the gallery continues to carry on her legacy as an academic resource to Green River College by presenting compelling and innovative exhibitions featuring emerging and established Northwest Artists throughout the year. The gallery also highlights works by Green River student artists twice annually.
Helen S. Smith Gallery, Green River Collegehttps://www.greenriver.edu/community/art-gallery/index.html
Sarah Dillon Gilmartin, Gallery Director: sdillon@greenriver.eduhttp://mail%20to:%20sdillon@greenriver.edu
12401 SE 320th St., Auburn, WA 98092