Exhibition dates: Thurs 8 Oct – Sat 5 Dec
The artwork can be viewed from outside the building, in the Avago window gallery on Albert Road.

Public Loss brings the sensitive topic of mental health and suicide “out” to all who care to look in the window of the MAC Avago Space on Albert Road, Moonah, from 8 October until 7 November.

Public Loss is an installation of baby clothes. It reflects on the lived presence of a child’s body. Accumulatively, the articles of clothing portray a simplified depiction of a child’s face.

The face is based on a photograph of the artist’s brother, John, around the age of four. Approximately 30 years after this photograph was taken, and after struggling for most of his adult life with yearly bouts of clinical depression, John took his life.

We were all once babies, and one day we all die. No one can ever predict that a life might be seriously impacted through the effects of mental illness, and as a consequence, deliberately extinguished. No one wants this for their child — no one wants this for anyone — and yet it happens and continues to happen, and increasingly so.

Every suicide is a tragedy that has long-lasting and devastating effects on the people left behind.

Public Loss deliberately coincides with World Mental Health Day on Saturday 10 October.

Image: Maria MacDermott, from Public Loss, 2020, folded fabric, M. MacDermott