© 2011-14 Sait Akkirman, including all photographs.

xx/02/2014, + xxx o xxx - "xxxx".

Year of Residency: 2013

During the three months a remarkable project unfolded, progressed and closed with ritual . At the projects heart it created a sacred space where people were able to take some special time to contemplate the loss of a loved one, to pause and reflect on what they understand and believe the sacred to be. Calling A Circle is about the concept of wellbeing in relation to the process of grief, death and dying. Leading researcher in the field of Positive Psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly emphasizes the importance of creativity in stimulating wellbeing, arguing that flow, the creative moment when a person is completely immersed in an activity that is engaging and challenging for its own sake, is a natural anti-depressant. During the project, individuals were invited to come to the studio to share a quiet and sacred space and to make a string of bells, flowers and other trinkets with messages to loved ones who are no longer with them. These strings were gathered into a shrine like space before being blessed and burnt in a ceremonial ritual.

Film maker Robert George documented the experience, the video becomes part of the installation at the Lopdell House Gallery in September 2014.

Tiffany's cultural diversity enables her to draw from many pools of knowledge, philosophy and mythology. Her practice to date consists largely of mixed media installations which integrate ceremonial and ritualistic elements and invite participants to transcend cultural biases and experience a common spirituality. Many people will have enjoyed the wonderful canopy of flags installed in Aotea Square during the Auckland Arts Festival earlier this year. Inspired by the ancient Tibetan tradition of prayer flags, Fly Me Up To Where You Are gathered the hopes and dreams of thousands of Auckland's school children in the form of hand-painted dream flags created in workshops with the artist. Their flags united in a stunning public installation, transforming Aotea Square with a mass of joyous colour.

Tiffany's personal philosophies and practice bring together influences of modernism, eastern and western spiritual beliefs, Jungian psychology and ancient cultures. Her materials are drawn from sources such as bells, wind chimes, salt and incense; precious found objects or those saved as symbols of dieties or tokens of memorial.

 

- reproduced from McCahon House Artists' Residency website.