Exploring Loss Through Art at Sean Hollywood Arts Centre

The Sean Hollywood Arts Centre is hosting a thought-provoking exhibition, entitled ‘Arthu’, which explores loss and bereavement as revealed through oil paintings by local artist, Anne McAlarney. The exhibition, which will be housed in the Carroll Gallery, will run until 28 June, with a free artist’s talk on Monday 10 June, at 7pm.

The Exhibition is, in effect, recording a process of bereavement through the ‘slow death’ of Alzheimer’s disease, which affected both Anne’s mother and aunt. The 169 small oil paintings are a response to the morning light, which helps her find a way back into painting and are part of a larger body of work which documents a year of bereavement.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Charlie Casey said, “This exhibition is a powerful and thoughtful account which looks at the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. The work focuses on the response of those whose loved ones are suffering from Alzheimer’s and the various stages that the artist herself experienced.

“It is well worth a visit to this exhibition which touches on issues relevant to our society today.”

The work reads from left to right around the room and takes the viewer on the artist’s journey with works created during earlier stages of the disease, through the darkness of death and grief, to finally being inspired and comforted by the light through a window, photographed every morning for a year.

The written texts and lists on the artist’s phone were also recorded on a daily basis as she grappled to remember and understand her own identity.

What you see is part of a larger body of work, in which the artist receives comfort from light, leading to comfort from mixing colours and painting on a cardboard ‘moving house’ box, then moving forward, connecting to life through light and then toward new beginnings.

The Exhibition is on view Monday to Friday daily until 28 June. For evening or weekend viewing times please contact the Arts Centre on 028 3031 3180 or E: arts.reception@nmandd.org