The My Little Sunshine team respectfully acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which we work and live, and the rich diverse Indigenous cultures across Australia. For over 60,000 years, Indigenous arts and culture have thrived on this sacred land, and we honour the Elders and Cultural Leaders past and present.
Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders viewers and the general audience of this project should consider caution when engaging with the work on this website as it contains images or voices of people who have died.
Grief and the anticipated grief from the death or possible death of a child is the main topic of My Little Sunshine.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The five stages of grief have long been understood. The sequential order of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance were introduced by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss-American psychiatrist, as early as 1969. Her writing was one of the early contemporary explorations about death and personal loss that took on a cult status in the western world. While the linear structure of these stages was stressed by the author during its inception, her work was more phenomenal in the sense that it prompted a changing western society - one that was starting to seek a divorce from its dependency on religion, to question the psycho-spiritual assumptions about life and the beyond. Kubler-Ross pushed us to acknowledge grief.
Yet as someone who rode the cult status of understanding the inner workings of death and its effect on humans, when she entered the stages of dying, it became apparent that grief failed to follow a methodical process or a linear path. Even as Kubler-Ross revised her own theories, she left behind a society that was still infatuated with her formulaic understanding of grief.
Did it fill a void? Did it impart a general acceptance of death and grief in our society? I’m not sure. I believe that the modern western society, in its many multi-cultural shapes and forms, has a complicated relationship with grief. We expect grief to follow a neatly packaged set of emotions and cognitive processes. We judge deviations and ridicule outward displays of emotionality. We accept eulogies, but reward resilience. Even our language, at times, fails us.
But what if it wasn’t so simple?
The purpose of My Little Sunshine is found here. In normalizing a conversation about grief and death – in creating a space where grief is welcome, where it could be resolved or remain unresolved, to talk about it or acknowledge it for the first time or even to just let it soak in. It is intended to derail the linear pathway we have been prescribed and to explore the lifelong tangle that grief can produce.
My Little Sunshine is made possible by the support from the families featured in it. The collaboration with Hummingbird House was essential in telling this story. An incredible team of artists - Aleea Monsour, Alex Drabsch, Jessica Forbes, Hine Kahukura, Matt Hsu, Anna Whitaker, Kinly Grey, Alana Holmberg, the team at KEPK gallery in Brisbane, accepted the vision for the project and helped fulfil its many iterations.
A physical exhibition was held from 22 May – 11 June 2022 at KEPK gallery in Yeerongapilly, Brisbane. We also conducted three successful events, including two panel discussions to accompany this characterisation of grief. This website is a virtual representation of this work.
Funding from Arts Queensland and the Whickers Foundation provided the resources to put this together. There are many more who are not named here but believed in its purpose and continue to play a big part.
Navin Sam Regi.
THE MY LITTLE SUNSHINE EXHIBITION AT KEPK GALLERY IN YEERONGPILLY, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA.
(TURN ON THE SOUND)
This video represents our earnest attempt to digitally capture the essence of "My Little Sunshine's" physical exhibition. While this virtual showcase parallels the tangible one, it embraces its own unique character and narrative space. In orchestrating the physical exhibition, our initial challenge was to identify a venue in Brisbane that not only met our spatial requirements but was also willing to dedicate its premises to a narrative as intricate and profound as ours for a duration of four weeks. Our quest was not merely for a space but for a sanctuary that would not subject our narrative to the randomness of public footfall; visitors would embark on this journey by choice, not by chance. KEPK Gallery emerged as the place for our pursuit, generously accommodating our foundational needs.
The architectural essence of KEPK, reminiscent of the letter "L", swiftly became a canvas for our storytelling. As illustrated in the video, the exhibition's layout was deliberately designed to reflect the evolving understanding of grief. Guiding golden lines on the floor symbolize this journey; initially, these lines traverse the space with linear precision, mirroring Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's initial conceptualization of grief as a series of sequential stages. This portion of the exhibition aligns stories in a linear narrative, embodying the prescribed path through grief. As the guiding lines facilitated navigation through the physical space, each image served as a visual anchor to the stories being unfurled through the headphones we provided, ensuring that every visitor was enveloped in a cocoon of personal reflection and empathy.
However, as one navigates the bend in the gallery's L-shaped configuration, a striking transformation unfolds. The golden lines diverge from their linear path, entwining into a complex tangled mess that fills the larger space beyond the corner. This metamorphosis in design is mirrored on the walls, where stories of grief escape their linear constraints, weaving into the tangled, enduring reality that grief truly represents. It is here, in the depths of this intricately designed space, that the exhibition fulfills its purpose: to communicate that grief, contrary to a linear progression, is a tangled journey that we carry with us indefinitely.
Through this exhibition and its virtual representation, we invite viewers to navigate the multifaceted landscape of grief, recognizing its complexity and the personal, non-linear paths it carves through our lives.
AUDIO DOCUMENTARY
"My Little Sunshine" the audio documentary tells the story of Matilda, from when she was diagnosed with a terminal heart condition, and her parents, Alex and Isaac. This 52 minute documentary explores the challenges and triumphs of living with a life-limiting diagnosis, and the complex emotions that come with it.
While the narrative is centered around Matilda's journey, the story is also interwoven with the poems and stories of Kaitlin Cole, who shares her own experience of grief after the death of her son Rory. These powerful words add a layer of depth and emotionality to the story, touching on universal themes of love, resilience, and the complexities of grief.
The My Little Sunshine audio documentary was produced by Navin Sam Regi. The audio edit and mastering was by Anna Whitekar and Music is by Matt Hsu's Obscure Orchestra.
Join us as we delve into our attempt to capture a portrait of grief.
