DETAILS
Ticketed
Room 204, Balam Balam Place
15 Phoenix St, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia
Let’s talk about death.
In this 1.5-hour workshop, participants engage in a conversation about the sensitive topic of death and dying, learning hands-on techniques for making an urn from rice for ashes. This creative and healing process encourages participants to start thinking about and preparing for death.
Rice urns can serve as a sustainable alternative to plastic cremation containers. They are biodegradable and can be buried in the soil, where they decompose over time. Creating rice urns and contemplating after-death care practices can be a meditative and healing process, offering a way to say goodbye to loved ones and prepare for death.
This workshop is an intercultural collaboration between design historian and consultant Dr Chetan Shastri and multidisciplinary artist Vivian Qiu.
Participants
Chetan Shastri
During his early career, Chetan Shastri worked as a design consultant in India and in London. Following a second MA in History of Design from the Royal College of Art (London), Chetan has been teaching design in India and Australia. Chetan’s award-winning research and creative practice in Australia, since 2019, has been focused on supporting better experiences at end-of-life.Chetan’s emerging social innovation practice emphasises designing for a post-capitalist world. In this context, social innovation becomes a critical approach – distinct from and often more impactful than technological innovation. Chetan’s model of practice is concerned with designing for significant life events (birth and death), the time between them through practices of care (of the self and others), and our relationship to the world (culture, society and ecology). Chetan is also interested in situating innovation for adoption by communities and evaluating its impact.
Vivian Qiu
Vivian Qiu is an emerging artist whose background in jewellery and fashion informs her innovative approach to wearable art and sculpture. Her practice explores cultural identity, healing and oracle bone script – the most ancient Chinese language used for future prediction. Drawing on her diverse living experiences across different countries, she delves into her roots and personal identity through unique material research, creating culturally significant pieces from rice, grass and soil.Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in Australia, Sweden, and the Netherlands. From 2022 to 2025, she collaborated with established artist Hiromi Tango on the large installation work Hiromi Hotel: INHABITANT, as part of the touring exhibition Children Sensorium across major regional galleries in Victoria and Queensland.