What are you grieving for? A loved one, a place, a future?
Is there a song that reminds you of something you’re losing or have already lost?
CHRIS ALTON AND EMILY SIMPSON_GRIEF KARAOKE_2024_INSTALLATION IMAGES
Grief Karaoke: Exhibition & Event
By Chris Alton & Emily Simpson
Exhibition: 23 – 26 Oct 2024
Karaoke Event & Bar: 6-8pm, 25 Oct 2024
What are you grieving for? A loved one, a place, a future?
Is there a song that reminds you of something you’re losing or have already lost? Join us for Grief Karaoke and share that song in a supportive, life-affirming space. This event is free & open to all, there is no obligation for you to sing. Singers of all abilities welcome!
Grief Karaoke has been commissioned by Abingdon Studios as part of the Work/Leisure_4 Residency Programme, supported by Arts Council England.
* Abingdon Studios, 14 Abingdon St, Blackpool FY1 1DE; Abingdon Studios is accessed via several flights of stairs.
Chris Alton & Emily Simpson have been working collaboratively since 2020. Their collaborative practice is primarily concerned with grief, the absence of language for adequately expressing it, and the creation of public spaces for sharing it. Over the last 4 years they have undertaken a range of activities that have engaged with these ideas and brought people together. These include; making posters; hosting dinners, workshops, and conversations; producing publications/recipe collections; designing a multi-stage billboard; creating a large-scale textile installation; and hosting their first grief karaoke night.
For Work/Leisure_4, Chris & Emily will be building upon their exploration of karaoke as a space for making grief public. They believe that karaoke offers a novel and generative format for engaging with grief. Karaoke emphasises the support and celebration of those who perform (regardless of their performance’s quality); and provides an opportunity for the telling of personal stories via familiar songs.
Chris Alton is an artist. His practice spans a range of media and approaches, including; socially engaged
projects, video essays, textile banners, and publications. Each of his projects addresses an array of
interconnected social, political, economic and environmental concerns. Recent exhibitions & commissions include; Grief Must be Love With Nowhere to Go, Bloc Projects, 2024 (with Emily Simpson); Tied to Everything Else, Paradise Works, Salford, 2023; and The slabs whistle; a song under my wheels, KARST & Take A Part, 2022.
https://chrisalton.com / @chrisalton
Emily Simpson is an artist and curator. Their work often explores personal and collective mythologies
around love, life and loss; through textiles, writing and socially engaged practice. Recent exhibitions & commissions include; Grief Must Be Love with Nowhere to Go, Bloc Project, Sheffield, 2024 (with Chris Alton); Siri, stop the patriarchy, commissioned by Lancashire Textile Gallery & British Textile Biennale, 2023; and Words to Grieve: A Recipe Collection, commissioned by A Modest Show, 2022 (with Chris Alton). Emily founded oh kay gall, an artist-led gallery which ran from 2018-2019 in York. Emily has a cat named Tofu.
WORK/LEISURE 