Mandy Jackson, is a Wicklow based artist with twenty years community midwife experience Her current research explores the phenomenon of social exclusion and repressed grief as experienced by mothers following an infant’s death. Mandy’s artistic response to her research findings combine colour with the fragile and fluid qualities of glass; to convey the essence of an emotional subject matter and to bear witness to a mother's loss and grief. Mandy intends to continue to develop this project into a site specific work or an intervention.

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My research project entitled Bonding, explores the phenomenon of social exclusion and repressed grief as experienced by mothers following an infant’s death.  A series of interviews with local historians and persons living in the Liberties revealed that in the past babies who were unbaptized would be buried in unmarked graves in St James Graveyard. The babies were buried in the middle of the night by family members because the babies not having received the sacrament of baptism, would not have been permitted burial in consecrated ground. I also found that Irish Society would socially excluded these bereaved families because of superstitious beliefs that infant mortality brought bad luck to the community.

In trying to understand how the mothers survived phenomena surrounding their infants death a literature review revealed the human brain alters its neurobiological function in order to ‘willfully forget’, severe trauma; with no recollection of the events. However, later in life if the mother is in a supported environment the painful memories maybe accessed and processed.

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My artistic response to these research findings combine colour with the fragile and fluid qualities of glass in order to convey the essence of this emotional subject matter and to bear witness to a mother's loss and grief. I intend to continue to research and develop this project into a site-specific work or an intervention.

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