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- Carolyn O’Sullivan
Carolyn
O’Sullivan
The Ephemerality of Grief
Hyper aware that we are here, and he is not. That I was there, but who was that. That I was yours, but who were you. This is me, and that was me, and you, and home, but different.
The importance of the echo of grief in everyday life has become an integral part of O’Sullivan’s practice in the last few years. The fleeting nature of grief in and out of one’s day, the confusion of what feels like never-ending despair, a failure to escape the death of a loved one. She uses the flower as both a personal and universal symbol of mortality, inspired by the changes a flower goes through once it is plucked from its life source. This notion has become an important way of depicting the unpredictable journey through grief. The flower also has important roots in the culture of death universally which lends itself greatly to O’Sullivan’s work. In particular, The Victorian Culture of death – from mourning wreaths to the colour black. Through the technique of mezzotint, it is her hope that the dark, velvety, ephemeral image evokes a sense of loneliness, confusion, sadness, beauty, peace and everything in which her own journey through grief has awakened.