Talking to grief

Where do we go when we die? Do we turn back into the energy that flows in the earth? I believe when we die this energy leaves the dying body and moves elsewhere in the infinite universe. Each of us, animals, plants and atoms, is therefore a part of one – the cosmos. Our dead body starts to feed the life. All the little pieces that used to be ‘us’, are just recycled. Our atoms are in the air, in water, in the whole nature.

In 2019, my husband died in a tragic accident. I discovered the process of grieving I had no idea about. Grieving consumed me, forever changing who I am.

For the most part of this series, I make collages using photographs from my private archive. I try to put together things that are hard to visualize. Making a collage is a process of experiencing. By controlling it, I gain control over the painful parts of my life. I use the photos I took during our marriage. I wanted to give them another life, build a new narrative to my memories and embrace my new self.

Weronika Woźniak (1985) is a Polish artist who graduated from the University of Lodz in 2009 in culture studies: film and new media. Currently she is student of The Institute of Creative Photography (Institut Tvůrčí Fotografie) at the Silesian University in Opava in Czech Republic. She lives in Silesia region, in Poland. She took part in group exhibitions in Poland and in the Czech Republic.