Loss is a normal part of lived experience.

The Grammar of Grief Handbook is a living online resource for people seeking performance practices which can help them work through losses in their lives.

Memorials are typically thought of as stone structures rising above eye level in a public square. The Handbook reimagines bereavement through writing, audio, or physical movement that can be created at home and come out of the body’s unique relationship to grief.

Indira Allegra would like to acknowledge the contribution of Temple Contemporary at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University with participants from the Fabric Workshop Museum and engagements with the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design at Indiana University, and Oxbow School of Art and Artists Residency in 2020 and 2021.

The Grammar of Grief Series began as a commission from the San Francisco Chronicle and is generously hosted by Temple Contemporary at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Invaluable support for the online Handbook from the Minnesota Street Project Adjacent Virtual Residency in San Francisco, California.

Indira Allegra

Indira Allegra’s work explores memorial as a genre and a vital part of the human experience. Allegra re-imagines what a memorial can feel like and how it can function through the practices of performance, sculpture, and installation.

They are the 2019/2020 Burke Prize winner, Fleishhacker Eureka Fellow, and a triennial 2019-2022 Montalvo Art Center Sally and Don Lucas Artist Fellow.

@indiraallegra
indiraallegra.com

Minnesota Street Project Adjacent

Adjacent is a space where art happens online. Collaborating with galleries, creators, and partners around the world, the site showcases virtual talks, live performances, and more.

Adjacent is a direct response to the 2020 pandemic, re-imagining and re-contextualizing the Arts in this new reality. The site is an extension of the Minnesota Street Project’s physical space in San Francisco — breaking boundaries, inspiring curiosity, and championing conversations about the Arts.

minnesotastreetprojectadjacent.com
@minnesotastreetproject

Design and development by @paperbeatsscissors
Handbook maintenance by Shanna Sordahl

Submit

Your loss is worthy of memorial. Your practice of memorial can be a resource for others experiencing the same kind of loss. Look to the website for inspiration, then create your own sound-based, movement or written practice or practice in your environment which comes out of your own experience of grief for others to try.

Submit your own practices and prompts anytime. The Grammar of Grief Handbook selects and publishes new submissions four times a year. The first publication period is November 6 — December 31, 2020. Submit here.

Back to Movement






















Begin by standing still. All at once with some speed, lean forward, bend knees and cross your arms in front of your chest. Then with that same speed crouch down to overlap your hands on the ground. Slowly rise with your hands in front of you. Stretch out your hands and arms. Twist a bit to the left to propel a slow full circle spin clockwise. Raise your arms overhead, interlock your fingers, palms to the sky. Stretch. Look up.

Image Description: Erin stands on a concrete ground amidst a snowy landscape wearing a long dark red coat, orange beanie, plaid facemask, and brown winter boots. A metal cable railing stands behind Erin and separates the concrete from the landscape.

I have been noticing the loss within me of taking love for granted, I want to release the selfish parts of me and allow for love and generosity to flow through me.

Erin Hayden an artist based in Chicago that works in many different media asking open questions responding to the world spinning and orbiting.

erinkhayden.com
@erinhayden

Try this movement practice with your own body and notice how you feel. Submit a movement practice which comes out of your own experience of grieving loss that other people can try.