Fabrica

Luna Arts, founded by visual artists Wendy Pye and Dagmara Rudkin, is a Brighton based new community arts and wellbeing organisation dedicated to creatively exploring the cultural dimensions of death. Their work examines contemporary beliefs, attitudes, and rituals surrounding funerals, life ceremonies, and memorialisation, while creating a supportive creative space to break down barriers and encourage open conversations about death and dying.

This residency will also mark the launch of their Arts Council-funded R&D project, which focuses on developing Luna Arts as an organisation. As emphasised in Death, Dying & Devolution, an Institute for Policy Research brief, "Avoiding discussing death leaves us vulnerable and unprepared, which can adversely affect our mental health." By encouraging open dialogue through creative activities, Luna Arts aims to challenge this avoidance and promote greater acceptance and understanding of mortality in a thoughtful, supportive environment.

During the residency, Luna Arts will collaborate with therapeutic practitioners, academics specialising in death studies and ethics, professionals from the death industry, and fellow artists exploring death-related themes. They will also engage in conversations and gather feedback from workshops and event participants to inform their upcoming projects with hospices and community groups.

On Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 March, there will be the opportunity to participate in creative workshops that encourage open conversations about death and dying. More information coming soon.

Join Luna Arts at 6.30pm on Thursday 27 March for an evening of collaboration exploring performative ideas that challenge traditional concepts of death, funerals, and memorialization. Through presentations, performances, and discussions, Wendy, Dagmara, and their guests will delve into creative and alternative approaches to remembrance and legacy. Together, they will examine how creativity can help us process and confront death, while reimagining new practices for honouring those who have died. More information and tickets here.

Wendy Pye Soul Films: flexiblefilms.co.uk/soul-films

Dagmara Rudkin: dagmararudkin.com

Luna Arts stems from Wendy Pye’s 17-year exploration of death and dying, that began during her MA in Photographic Arts and deepened through Death Doula, counselling training and Samaritans volunteering. Through this experience she recognised the therapeutic value of open conversations about death and dying.

Wendy has co-founded Soul Films, a collaboration with Flexible Films that creates short films celebrating individuals nearing the end of life or who have passed. These films incorporate a unique memorial concept: a QR code linked to the film is placed on a memorial plaque in a meaningful public space, connecting memory to place. Commissions include films for poet Benjamin Zephaniah and Death Café founder John Underwood. The process empowers individuals to shape their legacy and supports those grieving. Wendy also lectures in Photography and Collaboration at Falmouth University. Her photographic/video projects explore themes centered on the cycles of life and death. More recently, she has collaborated on projects that involve creating projected visuals to accompany live spoken word performances about landscape and memory with writers and musicians.

Dagmara’s fine art practice, developed during her MA in Sequential Design and is deeply rooted in myths, rituals, and religion. Over time, her work has evolved into storytelling through textiles. Her recent exploration delves into the ancient art of burial shrouding, creating handmade, sustainable shrouds and memorial cloths from recycled textiles as a more personal and environmentally conscious alternative or addition to traditional coffins. She is currently developing bespoke workshops where participants individually or collectively design and craft shrouds or memorial cloths for themselves or loved ones who have died. These sessions offer a therapeutic space for reflecting on mortality and supporting grief. Dagmara also lectures and runs her own mixed media workshops in art and design.

As members of the Brighton/Hove Health & Arts Wellbeing Network and participants in therapeutic reflective practice sessions with the Orange Collective, Wendy and Dagmara have received invaluable support from experts and peers about this project. This encouragement has inspired them to embark on an in-depth funded R&D phase to advance their workshops and projects while further researching how creative activities can encourage conversations about death, dying, and remembrance, helping to break down the taboos that still surround these important topics.