Chantelle Choi

Chantelle Choi

‘Piecing Together, Alone’

Painting

Watercolour, Acrylic Paint, Woodless Graphite Pencil on Watercolour Paper

4 Pieces

Based on psychiatrist Colin Murray Parkes and psychologist John Bowlby’s research and findings of the Four Phases of Mourning as opposed to the 5 Stages of Greif, I have surrounded my piece on the subject area of mourning in a series of large artworks. Each individual piece focuses on one of the four stages of the Four Phases of Mourning: Shock and Numbness, Yearning and Searching, Despair and Disorganisation, and Reorganization and Recovery.

My artwork Piecing Together, Alone was made using watercolour paint on A2 cold pressed watercolour paper for its ability to layer and blend, gold acrylic for its shine and thicker consistency, and Progresso woodless graphite pencils for their ability to control in line weight and thickness, allowing me to get fine detail in my works. I have chosen to use various symbols in my work such as animals and physical objects to further represent and push the artwork’s themes and referenced the Japanese artform of kintsugi for the thematic aesthetics. By having 4 equally sized and orientation, I hope to convey the continuity of an individual’s internal struggle when mourning.

Through my work, I’ve chosen to work with different individuals/characters to represent a person’s reaction in each phase being different from each other, whilst the smoke affect used to connect each image was done to represent the flow of time and journey through each phase. By having overlapping elements of movement and symbols, the notion of a continual experience is highlighted until ultimately people can begin recovery. My title Piecing Together, Alone emphasises the concept of my work of a person’s mourning experience being different from each other, yet, like others experiencing grief.