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Jasmin Smith, 'Forgotten mourners', 2022, Watercolour and charcoal on paper, 171cm x 113.5cm, Image Courtesy: the artist.  

Artist statement

A wife who loses a husband is called a widow.
A husband who loses a wife is called a widower.
A child who loses his parents is called an orphan.
There is no word for a parent who loses a child.
– Jay Neugeboren – An Orphan’s Tale – 1976

'Forgotten mourners' is a charcoal and watercolour drawing on paper which homages inarticulable griefs. The entangled and spiralling bodies of a mother and her two children traverse the line between reality and chaos and occupy a temporally idiosyncratic space defined by trauma and loss. 

Follow Jasmin on Instagram @jasminsmith_art

Acknowledgement of Country

UNSW School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.

We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.