Curated by Marisa Portolese, Departure is an exhibition that brings together the photographic and video work of three young artists Matthew Hood, Flavia Majlis and Hans Ning. Focusing on family and the complex relationship between parent and child, the works in this exhibition are created through an autobiographical lens to highlight issues relating to abandonment, displacement and maternal mortality.

In Love Me/Love me Not, Flavia Majlis deals with how her husband’s decision to leave her has disrupted her family life. In a series of compelling videos and photographs, she depicts a psychological portrait of this sudden and unexpected separation through the voice and thoughts of her four-year old daughter Chloe. In Matthew Hood’s images from the commemorative series Mum and Me, he revisits his relationship with his late mother through emblematic objects that have remained as significant artifacts of his childhood memories. Hans Ning’s tableaux style series Fatherhood is not only inspired by his new role as a parent, but also by his relationship with his father who abandoned him at a very young age. Hans Ning uses a sensitive approach in his narrative based imagery to convey and recreate experiences he wishes he had with his own father and the bond he now shares with his daughter. Through the perspective of either child or parent, ideas alluding to absence, death, separation and the failure to communicate are explored in this exhibition.