Comments and Response from Arts + Healthcare professionals
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The artwork confronts a number of problems…the trickier sides of life…..Grief touches us almost at a DNA level….poignant that this work is shown within a public space…..constancy of meeting people bereaved over the years….The Amulet art exhibition is profoundly humbling…honoured to be a part of it…(The artwork) invites others into a much-needed dialogue It was uplifting, although heartbreaking.. It encourages an open, public expression of feelings and memories, which might have been denied in Ireland’s past …….
The challenge of giving voice to loss is significant and full of risk…..
For most of the participants, this was their first experience of engagement with an artistic collaboration on any level…. Most profound and thought provoking …Such a powerful exhibition… Grief and loss cannot be contained by institutional structures… Anamnesis’ engaged the public at a raw point – at an exposed and vulnerable place for the participants… when people are willing to work together to make a difference it can be a life changing experience for all concerned… The artworks stand alone as beautiful art pieces… The Amulet provides a sheltered public space for support and witness of what is profoundly and inexorably intimate, private and personal…
I’ve always been interested in the transformative aspect of art…… There is compassionate learning to be had from this artwork, and where we need to go as a service………..this exhibition is very necessary……. this is a moment of change within the hospital and within our lives……as a result of this work, educating us, we will be, hopefully, better able to care for, and care about, Mothers and Fathers……..it was the real human connection; a tangible, human moment, and it was so powerful to see staff engaging…… you will always have that ache somewhere in your soul…… what you have produced is a tremendous work of art, and of great comfort for all of us…. We were very eager to have it in the Maternity Hospital…. From going into the gallery and seeing the exhibition, I think it’s fantastic. It’s a piece of social history itself, and it’s going to add to the country’s whole narrative over this next year…… we want to develop and evolve, and I think this will help people……
Comments and Response from steering group members
My experience of The Amulet has led me to an awareness of the indelible presence of loss within memory and of the vital importance of recognition in honoring loss and the continual presence in memory of lost lives.
The Amulet brings into being a psycho-social, emotional and cultural architecture of the 21st century for the shelter of infant loss. It creates a sacred space where those who mourn can go and re-member their born and unborn infants and where those infants can come into being again through recognition – can find a home for the longing to be. This shelter is composed not of the heavy fixed materials of granite, marble and glass. Rather the fluid components of its non-local multi sited structure are attunement, empathy, generosity of heart and artistic vision – raw materials that are conduits of connection between people spread across geographical distances and inhabiting shared emotional space. The Amulet provides a sheltered public space for support and witness of what is profoundly and inexorably intimate, private and personal. It is the gathering place of community support for the personal expression of loss and remembering of infant presence. And also it is a gateway of atonement and redemption – for the profound socio-cultural neglect that Ireland has visited upon infants who have died and those who have mourned them.
Julie Murphy HSE south Cork Arts + Health Programme
Heartfelt, intimate work. The artist tenderly yet honestly capturers the illusive quality of the project- remembering those that were here fleetingly with respect and dignity, while helping their families and healthcare providers to process the deep emotions embedded in the painfully poignant experience of loss. , some stalk, some tender, all reflecting the personal journey and precious memory of families who collaborated with the artist …
Edelle Nolan, Cork University Hospital arts coordinator