Herfa Martina Thompson is a Leeds based artist interested in the stories and folklore around black bodies.
Mare Serenitatis is a work in progress of a new body of work exploring the mythology of the self and family through an examination of grief and all the ways one tries to find healing.
Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity) is a large lunar ‘sea’ on the Moon, visible from earth with the naked eye as one of its large black masses. Herfa uses this as an avenue to explore grief.
Much like the naked eye visibility of the lunar seas, grief is something that everyone, regardless of class, race or geography, has already or will encounter and witness at points in their life.
The new installation features large decaying and frayed plastic and paper plinths, inspired by the moon and the Yorkshire Dales. Upon these plinths sit various greenware clay vessels and objects which tell stories of different moments of life and death, from the artist’s mother’s death, to the recent death of a fellow university friend.
Herfa ponders how one can eventually find serenity, when one knows more grief will come. As a manifestation of this thought, Herfa has created two puppets inspired by Chiron the wounded centaur, adorned with beads, bells and small objects as a way of sending hopeful prayers to the skies.
