I had several ideas for this project at the start of the summer break but none seemed particularly interesting or meaningful. Unfortunately on 17th August my mother died rather suddenly which changed my summer and indeed my life. She had been suffering with Dementia for a while which turned into a rapid decline and rapidly took hold and caused her final departure.
Due in part to my own grief and coming to terms with such a significant loss I was angry and frustrated and felt I needed to protest and shout about the injustice and also to make it public rather than keeping it a private battle within my head. However, it is a disease that at present has no cure and strikes thousands of people every year so a loud protest seemed futile. Then I thought it is a rather silent, quiet killer, the loss of memories, physical function and Motability with most sufferers forgetting they even have the disease altogether.
I came across the idea of a silent protest but not about the cause of the disease but about my actual loss, my private feelings not the headlines. I had lost my mum, not just in her death but in the weeks before hand, her personality had changed beyond belief, her conversation and sense of humour had all vanished. She had forgotten so much of her life and who she was, but in a remarkably twist she still knew she was a mother and had a loving family that she loved.
Being a traditional Londoner mum would have recognised a simple sandwich board advertising a traders wears or a simple protest from times past so I decided to make this the focus of my own silent protest. I collected two cardboard boxes and painted them white and with black paint wrote on them. Two simple straps held them together but also for attaching them to myself. As for location, I chose Chichester as it is a cathedral city and has a very large elderly population, it is also very conservative in its thinking and I hoped a protest of this nature would get noticed.
With the words ‘ DEMENTIA KILLED MY MOTHER’ printed on the front and ‘IF I HAD DEMENTIA WOULD I REMEMBER?… WILL YOU?’ printed on my back I started walking around the cathedral grounds. Most people just looked without comment, others seemed embarrassed or looked the other way and even change direction as if I was about to attack or even worse infectious. Some people simply nodded or gave a thumbs up. I ended up in Prior Park, a public park with a play area, open green space and a coffee shop. In one corner of the park stood a statue of Moses, it had seen better days, one arm was missing and had not been cleaned or touched in a long while. In deference to the meaning of the statue and its own demise I chose to place the banner on Moses as a memorial.
Michael Palmer 