Join us for a conversation between Indonesian-Brazilian artist Dan Lie and End of Life Doula Aly Dickinson, as part of the event series, Honest grieving for a better life.
Dickinson will speak to her experiences working as an End of Life Doula, supporting people, and those close to them, with terminal illnesses from the point of diagnosis through to the end of their life.
Dan Lie will be exhibiting at Spike Island in Autumn 2025. This will be Lie’s most significant UK solo commission and exhibition to date. Informed by ancestral knowledge systems, spiritual ontologies and contemporary ecological frameworks, Lie’s commission will celebrate natural cycles of transformation and the interdependent exchanges that structure ecosystems. Their work highlights the intimate yet expansive coexistence of diverse beings, acknowledging our shared and continuous participation in the processes of living, dying and decomposing.
Drawing from personal experiences with death, including the loss of their father during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lie has organised a series of events entitled Honest grieving for a better life. This series, taking place across a week in May, will explore the journey of grieving not only as a healthy and necessary practice, but also as an opportunity for growth.
Dan Lie will also be in conversation with artist Abbas Zahedi on Wednesday 21 May, 6-7.30pm, discussing ecological grief, systems of care, and the potential for galleries and arts venues to act as communal spaces for dialogue. Find out more
Content guidance: This event references themes of death and dying, and speaks to the contributors’ personal experiences of loss and grief. Please contact us if you would like more information. Visitors can access our self-care guide as a PDF download in the Information bar.
DAN LIE
Dan Lie (b. 1988, São Paulo) is a trans-nonbinary artist currently based in Berlin. Lie’s work demonstrates how abjection can be a tool of subversion and expansion. Their practice celebrates natural cycles of transformation and the many interdependent exchanges that structure ecosystems. A fundamental aspect of Lie’s practice is their desire to develop works which de-centre human agency and subjectivity.
Working in collaboration with forces they term ‘other-than-human beings,’ such as bacteria, fungi, plants, animals, minerals, spirits, and ancestors, Lie creates site- and time-specific works that can be experienced through multisensory channels. By giving visibility to materials that morph, decay, and evolve, Lie’s ecosystems highlight the intimate yet expansive coexistences among diverse beings, acknowledging our shared and continuous participation in the processes of living, dying, and decomposing.
Recent exhibitions and commissions include: To let go, Pinacoteca São Paulo, Brazil (2024); 36 months of loss, Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2024); Unnamed Entities, New Museum, New York, USA (2022); Them, Sculpture Garden, Geneva Biennale, Geneva (2022); Grieving Secret Society, 58th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (2022); Sopro/Sigh/Hauch, Park Platz – Berlinische Galerie Berlin, Germany (2021). Lie is also a recipient of the ‘Berliner Programm Künstlerische Forschung’ 2024/25 (Berlin Artistic Research Programme).
ALY DICKINSON
Aly Dickinson is an End of Life Doula based in East Devon. She started her career in Human Resources, but after losing her parents and two brothers in the space of just a few years, and supporting them at the end of their lives, she formally retrained as an End of Life Doula in 2013.
As an End of Life Doula, Dickinson supports people, and those close to them, with terminal illnesses from the point of diagnosis through to the end of their life. As well as working with people who are dying, she supports people with life-limiting illnesses, the elderly and those living with dementia. This includes supporting their families and the people close to them for anything from a few weeks to a few months. She has worked with people in their own homes, hospices, hospitals and care homes.
In 2018, after seeing the need community and public platform for trained End of Life Doulas, she founded End of Life Doula UK and was a Director until 2024.
Alongside her role as a doula, Dickinson also has experience delivering End of Life Doula training, developing and facilitating community workshops around death, hosting death cafes, and facilitating grief support groups.
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