An Empty Bliss, 2023-2025

Dementia affects an estimated 55 million people worldwide, according to data provided by WHO (World Health Organisation). Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe several diseases affecting memory, cognitive skills and the ability to perform daily activities. There are different forms of Dementia, but Alzheimer’s is the most common, accounting for 60-70% of cases worldwide. The discovery of Alzheimer’s disease is credited to Alois Alzheimer, a German Psychiatrist and Neuropathologist, for which the disease is named. The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is not currently known and there is currently no cure. My interest in Alzheimer’s disease and the broader spectrum of dementia based diseases has developed over a period of around 10 years, when I first heard ‘An empty bliss beyond this World’ by Leyland Kirby a.k.a ‘The Caretaker’, which forms part of a long series of musical works about a hotel caretaker diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and their experience of a gradual deviation of memory and self. The name of this series of is a nod to ‘The Caretaker’, and the beginning of my journey into the unknown depths of memory loss and gradual cognitive decline. To better understand and inform the work, I sifted through countless research papers, case studies, articles and books on the disease which has provided deeper insight into the disease. Whilst what goes on inside the mind of another person is always a mystery, one can describe their inner world through communication (words, images, objects) but in people with the advanced stages of dementia, the mind becomes an impenetrable fortress of darkness; a mental cavern without sunlight, a blackhole in which there is no escape. One of the objectives of art is to enable us to peer into people’s lives and experiences - but how is this possible when an entire sense of self has been destroyed? Exploring Dementia and the gradual loss of memory has brought on a powerful, but viscerally unsettling experience how I understand time, place and self.

I dedicate this body of work to those afflicted by Dementia and their loved ones.