Lived Lives I : A Rural Perspective; Lived Lives II : A Psychiatric Hospital Perspective, 2020

The purpose of the study was to address stigma, and to bring new knowledge and understanding around suicide, by manifesting the Lived Lives project in communities. The Lived Lives project consists of (i) quantitative and qualitative interviews with 104 families who have been bereaved by suicide (ii) an art archive created from personal donations of 62 of the 104 suicide-bereaved families about their lost loved one. From these donations, the artist created a series of art-works – the Lived Lives artworks, which were introduced privately to the donor families (and documented), who then made a collective decision to bring these to the public. Manifesting the Lived Lives project in the public domain over the past decade has involved the installation of the Lived Lives artworks (in a series of public locations), together with a science-arts mediated tour through the exhibition with members of the public who wish to participate in this guided exhibition, and with documented feedback from these participants. This feedback includes anonymous and de-identified oral as well as written feedback related to the subject matter (suicide), as well as the Lived Lives guided exhibition.