21g: Making Stigma Visible
Lived Lives in collaboration with St. Patrick’s University Hospital Dublin, Ireland's oldest psychiatric institution founded in 1746 will install the Lives Lives works within of the hospital. For this project a new work 21g: Making Stigma Visible will be made, consisting of 302 shirt fragments, each weighing 21g. Each represents a life lost to suicide, on average over the last 10 years in Ireland who had suffered from depression. Participants will be invited to make an ink mark or stain on the shirt fragments, representing stigma’s “stain” on society. Through mediated engagement with this artwork these often discounted communities will be empowered to address suicide and stigma in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them, in a compassionate, safe space.
Why 302 shirt fragments?
How many suicide deaths in Ireland per year?
Over the last decade there has been an average of 590 suicide deaths per year (2006-2015); (504 suicide deaths, 86 open verdicts).
How many suicide deaths have suffered with Depression?
International research estimates 60% of suicide deaths suffered with Depression.
How many suicide deaths in Ireland suffered from Depression:
Therefore, an estimated 302 ( 60%) of suicide deaths in Ireland annually were people who suffered with Depression (60 female, 242 male)
21g : Making Stigma Visible transforms this two dimensional data into a three dimensional psychological aesthetic experience, going behind the clinical statastics to make the stigma stain on Irish society visible.