Communal Grief and Joy in Trying Times: Molly Heller’s Story of Curation

A long-running subject of study and experience, grief confronts Molly Heller as an old friend while co-curating a five-week-long gallery, Grief Work, in partnership with Jorge Rojas and Colour Maisch of Material Gallery. A woman who confronts difficulties head-on, Heller prioritizes the full scope of living emotion by throwing dance parties after enduring heavy, unexpected loss.  Heller truly believes there is a superpower to be gained from the honesty of shared grief.  Beyond this, she possesses the additional power of creating incredibly memorable live performance works, which ultimately informed her co-curation of this grief gallery.

I sat down with Heller to understand her process as a curator and her process of sewing this event together. Here is her story: Heller started Heartland Collective in 2018 after an unexpected, uprooting loss. While first trudging through the trenches of grief, she asked, “What if I survived by surrounding myself within a dance party?”

She unironically continues to do that to this day. Fortunately for us, she is bringing the party to Salt Lake through this grief exhibition. As a curator, Heller specializes in live performance and moving bodies (audiences and performers) in unconventional spaces. The theme of grief has piloted much of her creative life for a few years now, and the origins of Grief Work stem from a performance idea with Rojas, proposed last year. This initial collaboration snowballed into the theme for an exhibit, which blossomed into a grant that allowed 53 additional artists to be featured in the final product this spring. 

Grief being the centerpiece of the exhibit was important to all three curators. For Heller, it was imperative to tie her exploration of grief as a communal process into this experience. She has found so much joy throughout it all and works with grief as an ever-elusive creature without trying to fix or resolve it. Her intention with this project is: “To have a sanctuary for [grief] to exist in public.”

Maisch and Rojas heartily support this notion, and each of them offers their own touchstone with grief. Many stories and disciplines are offered throughout the gallery in the hopes of connecting with various humans in a personalized way. Through this witnessing of art, our curators hope gallery strollers will walk away feeling braver about their own stories. Heller remarked on the collaborative process with Rojas and Maisch, saying, “I feel seen for the type of work I make and the collaborative process has been so rewarding.”

Heller’s sincere work and years of effort have culminated in a vibrant exhibition that is sure to make you stumble around your own beliefs about grieving. Whether you prefer introspection or verbal processing, there is every flavor of artworks to be tasted alongside a generous helping of live, multimedia performance. To say we are spoiled in this trying social, political and economic time would be an understatement, but public grief is what we need most right now. Come take a stroll, immerse your senses and learn from the dance party captain, Molly Heller.

The Grief Work art exhibition opened March 6 and runs until April 10. Events are dispersed throughout to invite audiences back for multiple rounds of enjoyment. A multi-disciplinary gallery, you can expect to explore visual 2D and 3D art while immersed in a soundscape. Beyond the gallery itself, our curators offer a grief circle, facilitated by a counselor, on March 20. An evening of live performance, film and dance in the midst of all the media will be shown on April 3. The best part, arguably, is the closing show on April 10, with a live performance by Heller herself, Rojas, and visual artist Lu Wei. The show will be immediately followed by a grief rave in the parking lot! A live DJ will be provided, of course.

Read about more local art exhibits:
Art in Experimental Places: Ben Bloch and Carol Sogard
Kimball Art Center’s Gaze Into These Eyes Champions Justice-Impacted Artists