In Nick Kilner’s posthumous homage to his brother, grief is a loss gradually unfolding, punctuated by the occasional spark of connection and the burden of mourning as his brother transforms with drug addiction.

Jennifer Philip elegises the range of reactions she witnesses, as she delivers bad news to cancer patients. She bears witness to “deep animal groans of pain” and finds quiet family resemblance that strikes at her own heart—futility in the face of sorrow. Jon-Michael Frank delivers caustic wit as they too illustrate deep pain in comic strip. In the words of guest editor, Anna Yeon, “grief is a shape shifting purgatory between life and death.”

Some simply refuse to grieve. This is true in Shokoofeh Azar’s fiction, led by characters whose denial to acknowledge death and humanity in Iran is experienced not as a ‘ stage of grief ’ but a stance of defiance. Similarly, in Julia Flaster’s review of Allison Chhorn’s docu-fiction The Plastic House, silence is key in translating between worlds and generations where memories of Cambodian genocide are too painful to be articulated. Alice Pung also reflects on unspoken intergenerational trauma made manifest in her up-bringing and the anticipation of a new baby.

Mira Asriningtyas meditates on uncertainty and risk in grief, explaining the affects and practices of living in the foothills of Mount Merapi, an active volcano. With the imminent likelihood of loss and destruction, the orchestration of a travelling community-based archive shows how the past and present of the community takes on new meaning. For Lujayn Hourani, the act of packing up, putting on, squeezing off and holding on to jewellery also expresses a longing for the past to arrive at the present, to return to home and family. Together, they show how memory—and grief, can be transported and carried around: the weight of trauma-cum-expectation placed on Alice Pung during pregnancy; the baby in Shokoofeh Azar’s story is carried on the narrator’s shoulder.

Sofie Westcombe and Lur Alghurabi lift heaviness into reconstructions of time: surreal offerings of what could have been, and what has been done, left behind. They both speak to the difficulty of knowing something or someone that is no longer there.

Haunted remains are carried forward literally, through Tim Edensor’s study of remnant bluestone in Melbourne, and the ‘blackened husk’ of the Little Saigon market in Footscray, where Ngoc Tran begins her recipe for mock meat.

Meanwhile, Mahmood Fazal interviews Malyangapa, Barkindji rapper Barkaa, about her experiences of displacement and redemptive breakthrough to music. They find common appreciation for family that will back you in a fight.

Chris Taylor explores grief as reckoning unfinished business; and shows through a series of fictional and re-appropriated book covers the ways in which authenticity, truth and authority about grief might be conveyed.

We all grapple with unfinished histories, anticipation and loss, on-going. After months of working on grief, we don’t feel any closer to an answer—the kind that would offer emotional closure (is closure one of the five stages? We can’t remember). Instead of definitive answers, this issue offers reflection on how messy, wired and sometimes beautiful, grief can be.

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About

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DEBRIS Magazine is based in Narrm (Melbourne) where we live, work and write. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional custodians of these lands, waterways and stories. We extend our respects to elders past, preset and emerging, and to all First Nations people.

DEBRIS Magazine Issue 01 ‘Grief’ is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

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Team

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Founder,
Julia Flaster

Julia is an arts worker, film producer and hospitality worker. She holds an Honours degree in Geography and a Master of Arts and Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne. She is originally from France and has lived in Melbourne for seven years.

Editor-In-Chief,
Elena Tjandra

Elena is a Melbourne-based writer and PhD student in human geography at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD research considers place and everyday life across the highway from an underground silver mine in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Design & Development,
Sharni Hodge

As a recent graduate of RMIT School of Architecture and Urban Design, Sharni currently works as an architectural asssistant and administrator. Her independent practice oscillates between interior design, digital media, and experimental moving image.