Photography exhibition to explore the theme of dementia this May

St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS) is delighted to host a temporary photography exhibition, centred on the theme of dementia, this May.

Age is a Privilege, Unless you Forget! is a weekend-long, drop-in exhibition which will be open in the Dean Clinic St Patrick’s on our St Patrick’s University Hospital (SPUH) campus in Dublin 8 on Saturday and Sunday, 11 and 12 May.

The exhibition is by artist Debbie Castro in collaboration with her father, Charles, and it explores dementia from the perspective of a person living with it.  

It is thought that, by 2051, the number of people with dementia worldwide will reach 250 million, and this exhibition aims to raise awareness about dementia and to open up a dialogue for the wider community about it.

Exhibition

At the core of the exhibition, Castro considers the life of her father Charlie and elements of it that she was previously unaware of before he was diagnosed with dementia 11 years ago. This includes Charles’ penchant for, or love of, photography and documenting moments in his everyday life, from site visits for his role as an agricultural trader to family holidays and birthday parties. Debbie and Charlie are united by their unique way of seeing and representing the world; in fact, if one were to combine Charles and Debbie’s photographs, it is quite possible that viewers would struggle to identify the image maker. Connecting their individual practices, the pair found a kind of common ground, and Debbie was inspired to not only scan her father’s images, but to manipulate and develop them further on the basis of recorded conversations with him.

Age is a Privilege, Unless You Forget! encourages visitors to find their own unique way of responding to the exhibition and to experiences they may have had of witnessing the decline in memory of people in their lives. It is through engaging with the exhibition that visitors will learn more about the experience and practice of the artist, while discovering more about themselves.

Through illustrating the development of her father’s dementia and giving a physical form to his experience, Debbie invites visitors to the exhibition to gain a profound and meaningful insight into memory loss.

This exhibition will be open to the public on a drop-in basis between 11am and 4pm on Saturday, 11 May and Sunday, 12 May. It will be free to visit, and no registration is needed. It is featured as part of the Culture Date with Dublin 8 festival, which runs from 8 to 12 May 2024.

If you wish to visit the exhibition, you can find a map to SPUH here. When you arrive at the campus, the Dean Clinic St Patrick’s is in the green building at the back of the visitors’ car park, and you will see signage within the car park directing you towards it. Please note, there is limited public car parking for visitors available onsite and we would advise the use of public transportation where possible.

If you have any accessibility requirements for attending the exhibition, please email communications@stpatricks.ie.

Panel discussion

To celebrate the launch of this weekend-long exhibition, a panel discussion featuring the artist will take place on Friday, 10 May from 6pm to 6.45pm. Registration is free but essential. Learn more about the panel discussion here.

The panel discussion is also featured in the Culture Date with Dublin 8 festival.

Artist biography

Debbie Castro is an Irish artist based in London. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Psychoanalysis and a Master of Arts degree in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom.

Castro began her career as a documentary photographer and has refocused her work as a conceptual documentary artist, adopting a collaborative approach to understanding life and photo therapy. She is an experienced facilitator and tutor (informal and formal learning practices and contexts), having led numerous workshops and professional development programmes to support early career photographers.

Castro has participated in solo and group exhibitions in PhotoIreland 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2022. In 2018, Castro she had her second large solo exhibition in Bermondsey Project Space London.