In this deeply personal and visually arresting presentation, Josephine Grindrod takes us inside the creation of her installation artwork Not by Bread Alone, an elegiac response to the death of her father. Combining found objects, painted elements, and sculpted forms in the manner of a scroll painting, she transforms grief into an act of imagination and renewal.
Drawing on a powerful dream that initiated the work, she explores the infra-thin space between life and death, spirit and matter. Through her experimental use of a clay-like substance derived from everyday bread, she reveals how the creative process itself became a ritual of mourning and transformation.
Interweaving personal narrative with mythic and psychological motifs – from Isis and Osiris to the weighing of the heart, and from Christ’s temptation to resurrection – Josephine reflects on what it means to measure a life and to love a parent in all their complexity.
Referencing James Hillman’s The Dream and the Underworld and Carl Jung’s practice of Active Imagination, this presentation invites participants to witness how art, psyche, and symbol can conspire to make meaning out of loss and to re-enliven what has fallen silent.
In bringing the language of dreams into dialogue with the language of art, Josephine reveals how grief can become a vessel for creative renewal and spiritual insight.