Carmel Sayer

The Silent Archive

The carer sits hour after hour, day after day, week after week, year after year in various waiting rooms; over time realising that by paralleling their loved one the carer too experiences a loss of lifestyle, health, socialization, relationships, reliability, career and dreams.

Being a positive support the carer silences personal thoughts. The carer humbly takes the burden, understands the moods, the abuse and negativity and the incredible sadness. The carer spends many hours just waiting, listening to the clock ticking, alone in thoughts, desperate to help in some practical way, only to be left in the dark, silent in the waiting rooms, with no voice, isolated.

On those rare occasions when invited into the therapy room, the carer is asked in front of the care person how they are? The carer dutifully responds “I am good.”

Carers’ stories are an untold and ‘silent archive’ in our Peel community. They bear attentive witness to the journey of their loved ones mental health, but who observes and notes their journeys? Who tells their story?

The Silent Archive is a catalyst to create a current progressive archive of our Carer’s stories. Your stories. Bearing witness and transforming the artwork over time.

Mandurah based, conceptual Artist Carmel Sayer uses a multi-disciplined approach through sculpture, painting, colour and installation to explore the relationship between spirituality, disconnection and mental health. Sayer is particularly interested in the effects the institutionalization of spirituality has on the soul. In 2017 Sayer completed a twelve month residency at Contemporary Art Spaces Mandurah and held exhibitions in Ellenbrook and Melbourne. Sayer will present an extension of current concepts at CASM in 2019.