Chapter 5 Shape of Grief Film

The thesis performance titled Shape Of Grief was originally filmed by the Centre for Theatre Dance and Performance Studies. This film is a combination of this footage and footage collected across the Shape Of Grief workshop period. Please see the end of the film for all credits.

About the Thesis Performance Shape of Grief 2023:

A study room explodes into an archipelagic space where the meetings and departures of voices across the Afro-Eur-Asian seas find their place. Unwinding layers of pain, bound by old music, four musicians traverse the explosion becoming vessels of a grief through each other that washes across the room with powerful stories buried in sound.

This performance/event built a shape of grief, through a transcontinental musical collaboration by exploring the subject of synchronicities and departures. It used a modality that derived from a range of performance, visual art and spiritual practices, to make these infra-structures of grief palpable and apparent through the installation of the maahaul (musical atmosphere). This work explored musical spaces, how people bring places with them through music. It included an installation of artworks, playlists and mind maps produced during the doctoral process, that led to the insights collected in the written thesis. In this way the work also served as an insight into the research process involved in the thesis.

The film must be viewed as a recollection of the atmospheres generated in the performance. It has been edited keeping in mind the limits and possibilities of recorded material. It provides an insight into the context of the thesis propositions and attempts to describe the immersive experience that was created across the course of the performance.

Copyrights: Kathyayini Dash