Last week, as some of our readers may have discovered from reading Comments, the young Melbourne artist Blair Trethowan took his own life. Coming so soon after the untimely death of Mutlu Cerkez only a few months before, the Australian contemporary art community is in deep shock. A number of readers sent us emails about this tragic event and although we had posted news of Cerkez’s death, we were uncertain as to whether The Art Life was the appropriate place to announce such sad news.
In Adelaide last week, we met a couple of artists who had been friends of Trethowan and both said more or less the same things; one was that Trethowan had shown no outward signs of depression, and the other was the deep sense of helplessness that our friend’s felt. Thinking over these events and the propensity of artists towards depression in general, we have decided to include under our Orgs category some permanent links to organisations that might offer some help.
The Mental Health Australia websites offer a number of services, including downloadable Fact Sheets [in Word and PDF format] on Depression and more in depth Depression Kit , a 20 page document that helps explain the symptoms of depression and offers advice to family and friends on how to seek help. The Beyond Blue organistaion offers support to people suffering from depression as well as help for friends and family. Our contact at Mental Health Australia also suggested, in urgent cases, readers should not hesitate to contact Lifeline.
To the family and friends of Blair Trethowan, we offer our deepest condolences.
