Curtain of loss

Abstract

Loss is a part of our atomic make-up: as energy persists and develops, so it creates memory of place and time. Our world is a remnant of others’ loss and will be so for those beyond us: much of our presence is confirmed by what we leave behind us. How much easier it is to dispense with a loved one’s possessions when they are still alive is an indication of that shift from the inanimate to the shrine.
 
 At this very particular moment in our history loss seems magnified in the media, in terms of human life, habitat, morality and economic integrity. If loss is integral to existence, what is it that makes it such a persistent and painful presence in our lives? Losing someone enforces our own ultimate individuality as we see, or imagine, that loss manifested in a movement away from this life, a process that we indeed will have to face at some point. Losing the familiar, whether in terms of an object or an environment, stimulates similar mental and emotional processes that recreate through memory a personalised image that becomes a reshaped replacement for the original.
 
 Looking at implicit possibilities of bereavement through a Curtain of Loss; examining how perceptions of loss can be explored as we leave memories behind is one of the pieces shown at Chichester Cathedral.