This work is about death, dying, and the transformation of matter and energy into new forms. The painting depicts my sisters and I carrying our grandmother’s coffin in a funeral procession. I cared for my grandmother during her final weeks, taking breaks to see crocodiles in the Everglades—ancient creatures that move between the water’s surface —conduits through which to navigate death and the subconscious with a route back to dry land. The day after our grandmother died, I watched the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico as a bright turquoise light formed across the sky— a felt encounter with a spirit, revealing the universe’s mystery, reshaping my perception of reality.
Harriet Poznansky (b. 1990, UK) is an artist based in London. She graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2014, and subsequently lived in the San Francisco Bay Area (2014–2019). She has exhibited widely, including Coleman Projects (London) Saatchi Gallery (London); Alice Black Gallery (London); WAY OUT EAST (London); Holden Gallery (Manchester); Boekie Woekie (Amsterdam); Punt WG (Amsterdam), and SliceBerlin (Berlin), Root Division (San Francisco) and Greenlining (Oakland CA). She was partnered with the SFMOMA artist Gallery between 2018 – 2021 and her work is held in private collections across North America and Europe. Poznansky was artist-in-residence within the University of Exeter’s Environmental Intelligence department (2022– 2024) and at Coleman Projects in the summer of 2024.
