Rose Andrews
The Topography of Grief
English ash
This piece began as an inside joke to myself. Anyone who has been to grief counselling will know of the fried egg metaphor- the loss itself is the yolk and the egg white grows and solidifies around you, becoming a part of you. This metaphor, of course, ends up with you being a fried egg- something I’ve grown bored of being. (Apologies to my last therapist, to whom I said this metaphor is stupid, overused and do all counsellors have the same metaphor handbook?!). Instead, I decided to make something beautiful to symbolise my grief. Hand carved in English Ash, The Topography of Grief follows the natural growth rings of the timber. The epicentre and the loss being a knot in the timber, cascading and growing outward. To the right; a separate loss comes crashing in, colliding with the first and forming a wave. Together they grow, until they reach their limit. However, contained events they are not and they continue to ripple outward for eternity, leaving an impression in the straight grain of adult life.
