Jules Findley’s practice emerges from researching into emotions in bereavement and affect in these life changing events, as means of conveying sensitivity through the material of hand made paper. Examining the raw emotions of complicated grief through the wider context of domesticity questions awareness of bereavement issues from the public and practices of mourning. The research comprised of practice through materiality of paper, both making new and old paper, suspending judgment of experimentation through the methodology of play. The combined research and practice examines the emotions through torn edges, tears and ‘tares’ (being the same word with the same spelling), gave the metaphor of raw edges in grief.
Through generating work for exhibition and public interaction, her practice explores cross-cultural rites through cross-disciplined outcomes. The making of paper is relevant as part of Jules Findley’s practice research, is part of a repetitive process which is reflective from a domestic setting. Using a critical framework, play and serendipity are aspects of methodologies used for an unpredictable outcome, where the work leads the research. As a result, the raw and the torn edge in her work, becomes an important aspect in its transparency and fragility in acceptance of loss.
Jules Findley PhD is a Member of Dying Matters UK.