Make Your Mark: Death

Works by young artists from around the state are now on show at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) as part of the third Make Your Mark youth art project.

Make Your Mark is a youth art initiative of TMAG with a focus on youth expression, creativity and community participation. Every project involves a nominated art form to explore, and a theme to respond to. The initiative is delivered by the museum’s art education program AccessArt, in partnership with local governments from across Tasmania.

The third project, Make your Mark: Death, has been funded by the Australian Government's Better Access to Palliative Care in Tasmania Programme, through the Tasmanian Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (TAHPC) 'Networking End of Life Care' Project.

Two mental health organisations, Cornerstone Youth Services Inc. and MI Fellowship, have also partnered with TMAG on the delivery of this project to help support the wellbeing of all those involved.

Through the theme of this year’s Make Your Mark project, ‘death’, the young participants have explored ideas such as the brevity of human existence, remembrance, cycles of decay and regeneration in nature, and the importance of living life to its fullest. Their common creative medium has been ‘ephemeral art’ – art that does not last.

The works featured have been created by young people from the Central Coast, Devonport, George Town, Brighton and Glenorchy municipalities.

They have been working in their local areas over the past few months alongside professional artists in order to develop their technical skills and professional awareness, and to create the selection of works now on show at TMAG.

The public outcome of an exhibition at the state museum and art gallery is a great recognition and celebration of the achievement and effort by all the project participants.

Make Your Mark: Death has brought TMAG together with a range of partners working at many levels within the community, and has provided an opportunity for young people to express themselves in response to end of life issues.

It has used art and the creative process in an innovative way to help encourage and empower young people to express their views and ideas around death and dying as a natural part of life.

This year’s exhibition follows on from the first successful iteration of the project in 2014, Make Your Mark: Freedom and the second project, Make Your Mark: Respect, in 2015.

Make Your Mark: Death is on show in the Bond Store Basement from Friday, 11 March until Wednesday, 30 March 2016.

Image details: Still from Your Name is Death, George Town Council