In this body of work, I aim to focus on the notion of death and my healing processes accompanied with it through a personal narrative. ‘Conversasie van Wina’ speaks about my personal emotive state, questioning the period after my father’s death and how I dealt with this experience. I explore themes of time, death, memory and presence that my close family and I have shared in his absence – with scenes pertaining to our family home, where he spent most of his time, as well as the last days prior to his passing. The images depicted reflect moments of reminiscence, space, time, melancholy and the juxtaposition between my family home, the relationships of my mother and brother, as well as my personal relationship with my father’s passing – which altered my perspective on death and life itself. This is a symbolic narrative of father, a visual ode to his presence in absence. By using

spaces my father, as well as my immediate family and I have frequented, I aim to revisit and reengage with the ambiguity of my self-referential state, relating to the time and existence after his physical departure. Conversant, intimate spaces like; my parent’s bedroom where a sea of wavy, milky sheets would meet his body every morning or questioning childhood and adulthood, since his passing.

The main aim of this work is to engage with my subjective landscape of grief and restoration. Through the symbolic scenes authored, I try to deal with my current personal confusion and battle with my spirits towards his passing. These ‘conversations’ or scenes created are an active and pivotal part in this narrative, as they speak to the universal attachments accompanied to death, as well as my personal battles with dealing with death.

‘Conversasie van Wina’ aims to invite the viewer to engage with the idea, after-effects and the therapeutic processes accompanied with death – through this metaphorical memoir.