The Dust Parlour

This chapter examines The Dust Parlour , a contemporary art project (2020–2023) and temporary exhibition space dedicated to death and mourning. Artists, musicians, and writers are invited to The Dust Parlour to create exhibitions, artworks, and music events in response to a permanent collection of curios associated with death and mourning. This chapter explores the concept of an art installation as a dark event happening within the intimacy of a domestic setting, where embodied mourning can occur. The chapter highlights a shamanic burial ceremony, ceramic sculptures of standing stones where visitors were invited to astral project and communicate with deceased relatives, as well as temporary artworks loaned by artists, and live music events where the artist sang to the souls of the dead. In doing so, this chapter presents contemporary artistic expressions of death, grief and mourning through the author’s reflective account of the art project and temporary exhibition, thereby situating The Dust Parlour within the framing of dark events.