Love and Loss

In the 1800s elaborate mourning practices became important for women to show their family devotion and respectability. If their husband died, many women were expected to spend at least two years in mourning dress, even at home. There were rules about what colours and types of fabrics could be worn, as well as an expectation that they would not go to social events in the first year.

A Domestic Interior with Two Women Wearing Black, One Holding a Baby, c,1885, A M Rossi, Object number 17/2002

In 1999, 29-year-old artist Matthew O’Reilly left the family home and never returned. His father, Timothy recalls. “A couple of months after he disappeared, I was trying to get down in time for a phone call… we didn’t have a mobile… and I had had a hip replacement just after Matthew left. The phone was ringing and ringing and when I got to it the person rang off. It was a shock to him, because he expected us to be here. Well, we were here but we didn’t get to the phone in time.”

Missing, 2006, Credit: Kyna Gourley, Object number 301/2012-5