As a GRIEVER’S BALL category, “GRIEF ILLUSTRATED,” is meant to be a break from language-based ideas about loss; it’s meant to be a place where we show instead of tell. So I’ll cut this intro-to-the-intro right there.
I have found in my own limited experience that the best thing about being invited into a group art show is getting to feel a certain kinship with the other artists in that group. Such was the case in A Lone, a series curated by Vignettes and Gramma Poetry of public installations of audio and visual works experienced throughout the city of Seattle during the month of May in 2018. As one of the eight presenting artists, I was granted the opportunity to connect with artist and printmaker Alyson Provax.
Using letterpress and unique-to-each-piece patterning placements that are wild, controlled, graphic, swinging, alive, and hypnotic, Alyson’s work pivots on raw, honest, quietly powerful phrases to underscore and obscure meaning and messages. You feel it all immediately—because of the poetry, because of the paper, because of the rise and fall of the letters, because of this old, old technology that means something ineffable to people who like holding pages in their hands and words in their minds.
Of her most recent show, There is so much I want to tell you at Portland’s Well Well Projects, Alyson told me, “The show focused on the inherent gaps in understanding and communication between us due to the ways that intent and interpretation never quite line up. While the statement [I wrote for it] doesn't explicitly address grief, grief exists within the body of work and some of the references. I wanted it to be there for those who needed it.”
Alyson was kind enough to let me share the twelve pieces from her show here. If you find they are talking to you, I would suggest following her in IG in order to hear—and feel, and see, and touch—more.