Aisling Coughlan: We Are Her Continuation

We Are Her Continuation traces the slow disappearance of my mother through dementia. Working across painting, film, and sound, this body of work bears witness to love, loss, and the subtle erosion of identity over time. Rather than depicting illness directly, the works hold space for slowness, tenderness, and grief.

The title draws on a Buddhist understanding of continuation: that we carry forward those who have shaped us, not only biologically, but through care, teaching, humour, and love. Even as memory fragments, presence remains.

This project is both a tribute and an inquiry, a way of staying with my mother as she changes, and of attending to my own grief.

On display in Axis Mezzanine Gallery from 30 April - 14 June 2026.