Produced as part of a collaboration between artists Marie Brett and Kevin O’ Shanahan with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, this audio-visual artwork explores the idea of how people can be both absent and present to family, friends and society at large.E.gress received national funding and support from the Arts Council and The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, and regionally from the HSE South, Cork City Council, Cork County Council, and West Cork Arts Centre. The making of the artwork spanned two years, including a research phase, which received support from Create, plus international commendation at the International Dementia & Arts Excellence Awards in Sydney, Australia in 2012.

Marie Brett and Kevin O’Shanahan both have considerable experience as artists who work with other people. Marie – a visual artist – has received international recognition for her specialist projects, which involve collaborating with people who have direct experience of different forms of loss. Kevin is a musician and director of MusicAlive, an organisation that has developed a national and international profile for music making in community and health care contexts.

Further information on the work of Marie Brett and Kevin O’Shanahan is available at:

www.mariebrett.ie

www.musicalive.ie

“An attempt to move beyond a preoccupation with the symptoms of dementia by reaching into the subjective reality of the person who remains behind the disease.”

ASI Nurse Co-ordinator Jo Calnan

Friday 18 October – Saturday 9 November 2013