PRESS RELEASE

Collecting Loss: Weaving Threads of Memory

Contact: Karen Haffey
Phone: 416.846.3909
Email: info@collectingloss.com
Website: www.collectingloss.com





Toronto, March 23, 2007 - A call goes out today to anyone, within Canada and around the world, who has experienced the death of someone they love to participate in Collecting Loss: Weaving Threads of Memory, by contributing a piece of their loved one's clothing and the story it evokes.

Collecting Loss is a community-based art project that will gather and share stories that exist through the clothing of people who have died. Textile artist, Esther Kalaba, and writer, Karen Haffey, whose lives and work have been profoundly impacted by the deaths of their siblings, are collecting loss to create something 'new' that will:

• Preserve and honour memories;
• Provide a visual and verbal gathering place for grief;
• Explore change by weaving individual threads of cloth and story into shared fabric;
• Offer healing, education and stimulation of dialogue around death of a loved one.

Everyday thousands of people die, leaving marks of sweat, smell, memory and body within the threads of their clothing and in the hearts and minds of those still living who love them. What happens to this clothing of the dead and to the stories it holds? Where do we, the living, deposit these memories? Clothing and stories from the public are needed to help create Collecting Loss.

Contributions of clothing and story to Collecting Loss will become part of a living, breathing public art memorial that will present some meaningful and powerful possibilities by connecting thinning threads that weave a fabric of stories together.

This project is supported by Canada Council for the Arts. Details about how to participate can be found at www.collectingloss.com.



For more information, or to schedule an interview, please contact Karen Haffey at 416.846.3909 or info@collectingloss.com.