2022 BURNT OFFERINGS Solo Exhibition at Red Head Gallery

​Part of the 2022 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival

Photography: David Williams 2022

Grief is the shadow of love.
Grief is about loss, and we all lose someone, or many someones.

​In 2021 I lost my beloved father, during a pandemic that meant my family and I could not visit and care for him as we would have, as we longed to. I worried he would die of loneliness before anything else. 

How many more people experienced the grief he had, losing the company of loved ones? Losing actual, physical touch?

So when I decided to make a show around grief (and love and loss and longing, and the ephemerality of all things), I knew that most people could identify with the subject matter not just in the ordinary human sense, but with that special edge that pandemic conditions have added to everything.

Using photography in many different forms, along with other media, this show looks at the faces of grief, the weight of it, some specific practices around mourning, and poetic ways of looking at what I felt (feel) and lost, when I lost my father.

The title Burnt Offerings alludes to the ancient ritual of burning things whether as offering or sacrifice, as purification or as prayer. 

You can expect to see images and elements of fire, charred surfaces and drawings produced by heat and flame, and photo-based sculpture that draws on the Chinese part of my heritage, along with many other points of contemplation.

Who or what have you lost? How do we mourn?
​How does grief change – and connect – us?

Sackcloth + Ashes: Gaze triptych

Through the Fire

More images coming soon! Meanwhile, check out my blog post about this solo exhibition.