Fabrica

During their Making Space residency, artists Wendy Pye and Dagmara Rudkin are exploring and developing ideas on how workshops and public events can use creative expression to ease anxieties and spark meaningful conversations about death, dying, and remembrance.

The residency offers an opportunity to develop and test creative workshops that encourage open conversations about death and dying, while gathering valuable feedback to refine and enhance Luna Arts work. Through creative writing, making, sewing, storytelling, film making, recording and playing card games, Luna Arts and their guests will explore how creativity can ease anxieties, facilitate meaningful discussions, and help participants create personal artwork that reflects on their legacy and how they wish to be remembered.

On the evening of Thursday 27 March, Wendy, Dagmara, and their guests will delve into creative and alternative approaches to remembrance and legacy through presentations, performances, and discussions. Together, they will examine how creativity can help us process and confront death, while reimagining new practices for honouring those who have died.

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.