About.

​Dying.threads is a participatory installation inviting the public to reflect on death and dying. The installation asks participants to consider and contemplate what their end of life experience may look like. Dying.threads prompts the public to explore death and dying by asking the following questions: 

1. "Where do you want to be when you die?" 
2. "Who do you want to be with when you die?" 
3. "How do you want to be remembered after you die? 

Answers are written on a small tag, and attached to fabric hanging on three trees. Dying.threads will generate a web of responses that investigate the varied inter-connected values, perspectives and experiences surrounding death and dying. ​

In 2019, the Dying. series attracted over 3000 attendees, 14 speakers, including keynote Ivor Williams (Helix Centre, UK), and 12 exhibiting artists and designers over the course of the DesignTO festival. In its second year, Dying. will continue to offer the public the opportunity to creatively engage in conversation about death and dying through the lens of art and design.

​Impact.

Our aim is to invite reflection on the connectivity of our experiences and provide an output for communicating thoughts, feelings and reflections on end of life. Dying.threads is influenced by  Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, reimagined to explore directed questions about hopes for end of life. Sustainability has been considered in the sourcing and afterlife of the materials of the installation in collaboration with a community garden project and a children’s art program.
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Team.

​Kate Sellen 
​Mattew Beaubien
Kowoon Jang
Chieng Luphuyong 
Emma MacGregor 
Molly McGovern
Victoria Weng

Acknowledgments.

​Dying.threads was made possible through the following groups contributions:

● Mother Maggie Helwig from St.Stephen-In-The-Fields Church 
● Kensington Market Action Comittee