The Forgiveness Project: Home(Land)

Description

For Loretta the concept of forgiveness comes from a deep and personal understanding of notions of compassion, empathy and resilience. In this iteration of The Forgiveness ProjectTO, she invites once again visitors to engage and reflect on feelings of pride, belonging, attachment, detachment, displacement, or generational trauma often triggered by the complexities of the term “homeland”.

“This community art project allows participants to explore these complex feelings through writing and mark-making on sheets of Japanese paper.  They will then ceremoniously tear through their creations and stitch them into a grid, thus meshing them with the experiences of others. The process creates a space for healing, connection and transformation.”

As a performative action, the textile piece will be burned towards the end of the exhibition and the ashes will be displayed in the gallery space along a documentation video. After the exhibition, ashes will be spread in the Grey County area and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) territory in a symbolic gesture of circling back to the land.

Loretta Faveri In the years before I met my husband and had a child, my life was full of alcohol abuse and unavailable men. My creative output and self-worth were very low. Although I now lead a very fulfilling life of sobriety and gratitude, I sometimes feel the shame of my past creeping into my daily life. By no means do I feel completely healed of shame.  However, I have developed a creative process that helps me overcome it.  This involves writing love letters to myself, dancing, making music with SOMO (wireless, wearable motion-tracking device that turns movement into music) doodling and most importantly, not judging or being fearful of the outcome.  My perceived "mistakes" are simply gateways to exploring something new.  My goal is to use this creative process to help others in need.

artofforgiveness.ca 

@lorettafaveri 

@dancingtildeath