BareBones 2020 · OFFERINGS: Artists Respond to the Mourning, Grieving and Fires on Lake Street

Tara Fahey

Grief is the Medicine: Tears Transform Lake

Play Video

Grief is the Medicine: Tears Transform Lake is the textile art work of crocheted tear lanterns that hold layers of grief and were hung in the trees on Lake Street.

In making her work, artist Tara L. Fahey noted, “it is an embodied emotion, ritual in a personal and communal practice, and working with art as a transformer. I am paying attention to the layers of grief moving through, working to name and let go of anything that does not serve this time, and inviting and making room for the tools and potential for liberation and healing.”

photos: Paul Irmiter, except where noted.

Acknowledgments: Sharon Dill, co-stilter and installer

In the recent OFFERINGS live pop-ups: the artist had stilted, performed and hung the work in the trees on Lake St. Oct. 28 and 30, 2020.

About the Artist

Tara L. Fahey is an artist, teacher, and stilt performer. Her work focuses on puppets, lanterns, textiles, screen printing, costume design, directing, and nature craft. For the past 12 years, she has collaborated with Barebones Puppets and Chicks on Sticks, making art and teaching in community. In 2016, Tara co-envisioned and built the Illuminated Reef for Northern Spark and co-designed installations for Made Here, currently residing at Can Can Wonderland. In 2018 and 2020, Tara painted and built wings with the Monarch Migration shanty, and in 2019 created Devotion: the Early Years of Rachel Carson for Puppet Lab, with funding by the Jerome Foundation.