Tia Rotstein - "Journey of Grief"

My media production displays a five piece mixed media series that follows the journey of a person as they experience the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance). I chose to explore this topic as subjects such as death and grief take up a small proportion of media coverage. This is because these subjects involve upsetting and heavy descriptions and presentations therefore, people are reluctant to display it in the media.

Through my work I aim to normalise the idea of grief and represent it as a human experience which is not to be feared however understood. I intend for my mixed media series to educate others on the journey of grief as well as allow the audience to understand the topic at a deeper level than is usually expressed in the media through emotional engagement from the audience.

I chose to create plotographs rather than photographs as I would like the audience to view the emotion of the subject frozen in time alongside with the movement of the grief monster. Using this effect will allow me to capture the intensity of her feelings and the personality of the grief monster (through movement) causing the audience to feel empathy for her, although they are there in the image with the girl feeling her anger, hopelessness, pain and freedom.

Although the series intends for the audience to perceive the images with certain meaning I also want the audience to build on any ideas I have displayed or interpret the emotions in a way that they have experienced and understand. There is a different story behind every image and I want the audience to see the images in sequential order so the images create a story. This understanding of grief is imperative as when ourselves or others experience it we can come from a place of understanding, compassion and the understanding that grief is a human experience we all go through.