This workshop offers a tool, and perhaps a ritual, for letting go of the miseries held inside of you. Together, with the artist (and sometimes goblin) Tricia Enns, you will be guided through a session where you will learn how to create your own misery vessels out of pulp infused with your miseries and maybe a little magic and enchanted fragments found within the local streetscape of Atelier Retailles.

*The misery goblin tells us that “misery vessels speak to our desire — no our need — to off load miseries from our heavy laden shoulders. By being made of decomposable materials they do not only carry your grief, but release it, when you are ready, into the wild land, by disintegrating, when placed outside in the wind and the rain. As the vessel decomposes, so do the miseries, becoming nutrients for something new to grow.“

This three hour workshop will be composed of three parts:

1. Reflecting and writing down our miseries on recycled paper which will be turned into pulp;

2. Gathering enchanted and magical fragments in the surrounding streets;

3. Creating personal misery vessels to take home with you (the misery vessels will need time to dry, for the miseries to set, therefore you will need to return at a later date to pick up your vessel or risk taking it home wet.)

No experience is required for this workshop, just an open-mind, some misery, and willingness to play. Each person will leave with at least one misery vessel and a copy of the lore associated with it.

All supplies will be provided, along with a few snacks. The workshop will be taught in English. No exchanges or reimbursements.

More about Tricia:

Tricia Enns (she/they) is a playful place-based artist who uses low- and high-tech approaches to how we relate to both our outer and inner landscape. Tricia has been working with the medium of paper, in unconventional ways, since 2020, when she began creating maps of Tiohtià:ke/Montreal with debris and recycled paper. They have turned the act of creating debris maps into a performative gesture — in 2024 they were part of artch, Emerging Contemporary Arts Festival, where they created two large, 1 m x 1 m, debris maps of the Place Ville Marie using debris gathered by the audience. Tricia’s practice is as much about what is created as the process of making with others and the interactions, observations and conversations that arise. They have facilitated workshops, often involving paper and found materials, in Bjorko Sweden, NYC, Montreal, Canterbury UK, Bath Spa UK, Brighton UK, Kitchener, Detroit, Toronto, Stuer Denmark.

Paper is only one facet of Tricia’s curious and robust practice, learn about the other facets at triciaenns.com.