Loss Becomes Object, an exhibition by Tracy Mackenna and Edwin Janssen, in collaboration with The Highland Hospice, opens at the Highland Institute for Contemporary Art on Saturday 24 September, 2-5pm, with an event including a series of talks, from 2-4pm: Tracy Mackenna and Edwin Janssen; Paula McCormack, Director of Clinical and Education Services for The Highland Hospice; and Emma Nicolson, Director of ATLAS, followed by a preview of the exhibition from 4-5pm.

Creating environments that integrate art making and social engagement, for this project Tracy Mackenna and Edwin Janssen focus on the interrelationships between death, memory, material culture and recycling. Through a period of engagement with The Highland Hospice Shops, and by working with artefacts donated to them, the artists investigate issues recurrent in their work; the value and significance of objects, life and death, and artist-led curatorial practice.

Re-presenting items such as clothes, music, videos, books and bric-a-brac, they question the value of ‘things’, and how they determine and reflect identities and histories. A new body of creative writing by Tracy Mackenna, developed with staff and volunteers of the Hospice shops, investigates the cultural and social status of the donated objects.

This inquiry follows on from work made in response to their own familial experiences of death, represented in work such as Life is Over! if you want it (2009) and relates to a presentation given by the artists, that addressed the role that art can play in mediating issues of death and loss, as part of the Highland Hospice’s conference, The Space Between: making connections in palliative care (2009).

The Museum of Loss and Renewal will be formed by two distinct exhibitions: Loss Becomes Object at HICA, and a second exhibition, in November 2011, at The Visual Research Centre, Dundee. The entire project will be documented in a 2012 publication.

Loss Becomes Object runs from 24 September – 30 October, and is open on Saturdays and Sundays 2 – 5pm, or by appointment.

A limited number of seats are available on transport from the centre of Inverness to HICA on Saturday 24th, for attending the opening and talks. A mini-bus will leave Inverness at 1pm and leave HICA, returning to Inverness, at 5pm. If you would like to book a seat please e-mail your details to HICA ( info@h-i-c-a.org ) with the subject heading ‘mini-bus’, and we will let you know if a seat is available. Seats will be allocated on a ‘first-come-first-served’ basis.

www.mackenna-and-janssen.net

HICA, Dalcrombie, Loch Ruthven, Dores, Inverness-shire, IV2 6UA, UK

T: +44 (0)1808-521-306 info@h-i-c-a.org www.h-i-c-a.org

Supported by The Carnegie Trust for The Universities of Scotland

Source: h-i-c-a