matthew coombes does grief.

today i stumbled across the interesting work of matthew coombes & his lovely 'non-therapeutic tools of grieving' project. as a further discussion of my previous entry, i find that grief (& the outward process of) as well as ugliness & disfigurement, are taboo in society. i've often heard that americans have a very unhealthy process of grieving & dealing with death; since i was born & raised here, i feel a little inadequate to agree or disagree, but could see how this might be true & how artists such as matthew may feel the urge/need to create as a discourse to this taboo.

my other interest in this work is the notion of collecting, especially in the case of the pictured tear vial. as a obsessive collector myself, i've long been interested in whether or not tears can be collected & i love the idea of this, in all of his victorian grandeur.

i also recommend taking a peek at the interview matthew did regarding grief & his works here.