BARE BONESPart of BNW # 28
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Bare Bones is an interactive installation, shrine, collective ritual, community emergent ‘Re-membering’. An artisanal distillery of nature and the more-than-human, it invites quiet reflection, celebration and revelation of the inherent beauty of life including that which dies in us and around us. Be prepared for the mysterious and unexpected happenings.
Bring your willingness, flowers, tears, prayers, drums, bones & deepest longings.
Bring your willingness, flowers, tears, prayers, drums, bones & deepest longings.
Come once, come everyday, again and again and again….
When: Thursday 28th October - Saturday 30 October
Where: The Sanctuary | Denmark
Shrine Opening hours:
Thursday 28th ~ 3-6pm
Friday 29th ~ 9-6pm
Saturday 30th ~ 9-11am
11am Fire Ceremony
Where: The Sanctuary | Denmark
Shrine Opening hours:
Thursday 28th ~ 3-6pm
Friday 29th ~ 9-6pm
Saturday 30th ~ 9-11am
11am Fire Ceremony
In most of the world’s natural cultures, there is a deep well of mystical understanding and connection to the essence of change arising through life, death and rebirth cycles.
These passages of time & space were altered, honoured and distilled themselves amidst the earliest tribal community intelligence’s and braided into the elaborate weave of humans and the more-than-human.
The song of a flock of birds flying overhead, the waxing and waning rhythms of a dark and full moon, the flood of a stream, sunlight warming the skin and gusts of wind sharing knowledge from their whispers, altering the lines of earthen landscape seem to be a sensory language and inheritance we have forgotten.
However maybe, it is not lost. Maybe it still walks among us and it's our duty to slow down, kneel down and listen.
“Whenever we find the theme of death, whether in recurrent myths or modern dreams, it rarely stands alone” ~ Joseph Henderson
We are a society, a culture that has seemingly banished and exiled Death from our table, yet each of us is slowly walking step by step, hand in hand each day closer to this undeniable mysterious reality that will eventually become us.
It is a reality we all most intimately share with one another, even if it’s unfortunately become the estranged weird cousin we don’t speak about.
We seem to have forgotten our ability to honour the dead, the dying process, and subsequently the homeopathic power of this realm simultaneously transforming, birthing and regenerating life around, within and between us.
They go hand in hand.
They reside within the same bed...within the same heartbeat.
Fallen trees, animal bones, leaves and heavy rainfall all marry, dissolve and decompose into one another in order to breed and sprout new mycelial networks and plants.
“By honouring, grieving, dancing, singing, celebrating the loss of what we love or hold dear, we make more life with the beauty of its expression through praise” ~ Martin Prechtel.
Our ancestors, indigenous wisdom keepers, the deep bone knowledge of past societies were tapped into this wellspring.
This was an innate part of their existence that was not separate, rather interwoven and satisfied amongst their intrinsic connection to nature and the more-than-human.
We are part of a wider network of ‘others’ in community that we can turn to in great churning tides.
And I am sure we can all agree that we have always been sailing these seas of great unknown and unrest, yet currently the swell and sets seem thick, relentless and well past just lingering on our doorstep.
Here in Kwoorabup (Denmark) we are surrounded by the winged ones that welcome and farewell us with song every morning and evening, the stone granite people resting with deep memory amongst the hills of bone and wood, the seaweed people of greens pool holding forgotten waters, the lick and warmth of fire’s that burn in the hearths of our homes through winter, the damp moss and leaf litter floor of forest canopies sprinkling blessings…these are all our kin and perhaps from our slow listening and attunement we can discover solace, peace, connection in their company and answers or signs for our ‘next best step’.
The intention of Bare Bones is to create a sacred space where breath fills the lungs of community ‘Re-membering’ inside of us as we allow the encounter with death and its exhale to be converted, decomposed, decayed, recycled and subsequently reborn into ritual beauty, renewal, honouring, celebration and culture-supporting continuity.
The shrine is a symbolic bundle of distilled natural elements evoking the beauty and cycles of life that circle and connect the world of the living with the world of the dead.
A steer skull and its skeletal bones are placed upon a velvet cloth, a bird of pebbles unfurls feathered wings, three golden apples mark the crossing of a threshold between the mundane and the liminal.
There exists a deep longing in all of us to appreciate the sheer emotional beauty of existence, the mythic resonance of this life, far outside of any cerebral or intellectual discourse, rather ~ a devotional community space to contemplate the incomprehensible.
Bare Bones welcome’s the paired dance of the sacred with the mundane.
Expect the unexpected when you visit.
Perhaps you arrive with not another human soul in sight, yet you feel the company of the bones, the birds, the grass underfoot.
Perhaps there is an old woman sitting down there humming a tune and tapping a drum.
Perhaps there are children running around and screaming, playing, laughing on the grass as the families share a picnic.
Someone is doing yoga, another person is weeping and writing in a leather-bound book.
The full spectrum and complexity of community are welcomed as they are reflected in the installation’s themes, memory and image.
Please bring whatever you need including any flower offerings for the shrine.
There will be paper, pen and red twine provided for those that wish to engage and place a scroll with prayers and offerings amongst the bones.
Whatever this space stirs within you is your own unique experience that the scrolls offer the opportunity to place into a bundled physical form of offering.
The words that pour out onto the paper and wish to be hugged and held amongst the feathers, flowers, bones and fabrics may be the names of dear friends, relatives, loves you have said goodbye to that are no longer walking in this earth realm...or perhaps animals or pets names that also share a beautiful missing real-estate in your heart.
Maybe there are prayers for the shifts and changes, the shedding and losses of aspects of self, life experience as well as deep joys and gratitudes witnessed by the bounty of life’s vista.
The scrolls welcome the full spectrum of offerings from you to life, death & the in-between.
They will be held by the installation over the three days and then burnt in the outside fire pit on Saturday 30th at 11am.
Community is invited to gather and be involved in the fire ceremony, to support one another bear witness and acknowledge these offerings through the passages of time.
To honour and be in reciprocity with all that has been represented through this community ritual process, the ash from the fire will be scattered in the community gardens to nourish and sprout new life, new beginnings onwards.
Bring a picnic or some food to share with you if after the fire ceremony you wish to hang around for lunch.
Find out more about The Sanctuary find a map here and directions here.
These passages of time & space were altered, honoured and distilled themselves amidst the earliest tribal community intelligence’s and braided into the elaborate weave of humans and the more-than-human.
The song of a flock of birds flying overhead, the waxing and waning rhythms of a dark and full moon, the flood of a stream, sunlight warming the skin and gusts of wind sharing knowledge from their whispers, altering the lines of earthen landscape seem to be a sensory language and inheritance we have forgotten.
However maybe, it is not lost. Maybe it still walks among us and it's our duty to slow down, kneel down and listen.
“Whenever we find the theme of death, whether in recurrent myths or modern dreams, it rarely stands alone” ~ Joseph Henderson
We are a society, a culture that has seemingly banished and exiled Death from our table, yet each of us is slowly walking step by step, hand in hand each day closer to this undeniable mysterious reality that will eventually become us.
It is a reality we all most intimately share with one another, even if it’s unfortunately become the estranged weird cousin we don’t speak about.
We seem to have forgotten our ability to honour the dead, the dying process, and subsequently the homeopathic power of this realm simultaneously transforming, birthing and regenerating life around, within and between us.
They go hand in hand.
They reside within the same bed...within the same heartbeat.
Fallen trees, animal bones, leaves and heavy rainfall all marry, dissolve and decompose into one another in order to breed and sprout new mycelial networks and plants.
“By honouring, grieving, dancing, singing, celebrating the loss of what we love or hold dear, we make more life with the beauty of its expression through praise” ~ Martin Prechtel.
Our ancestors, indigenous wisdom keepers, the deep bone knowledge of past societies were tapped into this wellspring.
This was an innate part of their existence that was not separate, rather interwoven and satisfied amongst their intrinsic connection to nature and the more-than-human.
We are part of a wider network of ‘others’ in community that we can turn to in great churning tides.
And I am sure we can all agree that we have always been sailing these seas of great unknown and unrest, yet currently the swell and sets seem thick, relentless and well past just lingering on our doorstep.
Here in Kwoorabup (Denmark) we are surrounded by the winged ones that welcome and farewell us with song every morning and evening, the stone granite people resting with deep memory amongst the hills of bone and wood, the seaweed people of greens pool holding forgotten waters, the lick and warmth of fire’s that burn in the hearths of our homes through winter, the damp moss and leaf litter floor of forest canopies sprinkling blessings…these are all our kin and perhaps from our slow listening and attunement we can discover solace, peace, connection in their company and answers or signs for our ‘next best step’.
The intention of Bare Bones is to create a sacred space where breath fills the lungs of community ‘Re-membering’ inside of us as we allow the encounter with death and its exhale to be converted, decomposed, decayed, recycled and subsequently reborn into ritual beauty, renewal, honouring, celebration and culture-supporting continuity.
The shrine is a symbolic bundle of distilled natural elements evoking the beauty and cycles of life that circle and connect the world of the living with the world of the dead.
A steer skull and its skeletal bones are placed upon a velvet cloth, a bird of pebbles unfurls feathered wings, three golden apples mark the crossing of a threshold between the mundane and the liminal.
There exists a deep longing in all of us to appreciate the sheer emotional beauty of existence, the mythic resonance of this life, far outside of any cerebral or intellectual discourse, rather ~ a devotional community space to contemplate the incomprehensible.
Bare Bones welcome’s the paired dance of the sacred with the mundane.
Expect the unexpected when you visit.
Perhaps you arrive with not another human soul in sight, yet you feel the company of the bones, the birds, the grass underfoot.
Perhaps there is an old woman sitting down there humming a tune and tapping a drum.
Perhaps there are children running around and screaming, playing, laughing on the grass as the families share a picnic.
Someone is doing yoga, another person is weeping and writing in a leather-bound book.
The full spectrum and complexity of community are welcomed as they are reflected in the installation’s themes, memory and image.
Please bring whatever you need including any flower offerings for the shrine.
There will be paper, pen and red twine provided for those that wish to engage and place a scroll with prayers and offerings amongst the bones.
Whatever this space stirs within you is your own unique experience that the scrolls offer the opportunity to place into a bundled physical form of offering.
The words that pour out onto the paper and wish to be hugged and held amongst the feathers, flowers, bones and fabrics may be the names of dear friends, relatives, loves you have said goodbye to that are no longer walking in this earth realm...or perhaps animals or pets names that also share a beautiful missing real-estate in your heart.
Maybe there are prayers for the shifts and changes, the shedding and losses of aspects of self, life experience as well as deep joys and gratitudes witnessed by the bounty of life’s vista.
The scrolls welcome the full spectrum of offerings from you to life, death & the in-between.
They will be held by the installation over the three days and then burnt in the outside fire pit on Saturday 30th at 11am.
Community is invited to gather and be involved in the fire ceremony, to support one another bear witness and acknowledge these offerings through the passages of time.
To honour and be in reciprocity with all that has been represented through this community ritual process, the ash from the fire will be scattered in the community gardens to nourish and sprout new life, new beginnings onwards.
Bring a picnic or some food to share with you if after the fire ceremony you wish to hang around for lunch.
Find out more about The Sanctuary find a map here and directions here.