19/08/25
Interview with Natalia Millman
“One often calms one’s grief by recounting it” – Pierre Corneille
When the Ukrainian-born British conceptual artist Natalia Millman lost her father to dementia, she turned to her art practice in an effort to begin processing that loss. Her mixed-media pieces clearly expressed her fear of the ageing process and the stigma surrounding dementia. She explicitly began highlighting the damage that time inflicts on the human body and mind, how it can erase language, memories and basic consciousness. Her sombre abstract paintings illuminated interconnected body parts with fleshy and dark colours, while her videos, installation and 3D works were centred on the fragility of the human brain, memory loss, passing physicality, and spiritual and philosophical issues surrounding the ageing mind. In her attempts to repair, she started collecting broken objects, pieces of bricks and rusty wire, and putting these together to create a new object, giving them a fresh life and function.
When her research informed her that writing a letter to one’s loss – a “grief letter” – could prove helpful, Millman – tentatively at first – put a call out to others to write and share such a letter with her. As the responses poured in, she applied for, and successfully received, Arts Council funding, and, after three years of building up the nerve and emotional stamina, she began reading and responding to the letters.
This exhibition is the culmination of the project, and it includes an installation made from the original letters and Millman’s drawn responses, along with “full-body drawings”, a meditation, film and performance. The three-week show is also complemented by a full programme of grief- and loss-related workshops, supported by the bereavement charity Cruse.
Studio International met Millman in St Peter’s Church, St Albans, where the exhibition will take place, to hear more about the poignant process and the impact it has had on the artist’s own grief.
Read the full interview here