Deirdre Kashdan is a contemporary multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans photography, collage, printmaking and performance. Her work centres on conversation, participation and storytelling, creating spaces where people can share experiences that are often hidden or unheard.

Inspired by her own experience of suicide and severe mental illness within her family, The Missing Project is Deirdre’s most significant work to date. Bringing together the voices and images of more than 300 women whose lives have been profoundly affected by the mental illness or addiction of someone they love, the project shines a light on experiences that are too often overlooked because of stigma, shame or institutional silence.

At its heart, The Missing Project is an invitation to witness, to listen and to acknowledge the resilience of those who care. It offers a powerful space for connection, recognition and healing through creativity.

Inspired by artists and thinkers that include Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono, Suzanne Lacy and Suzi Gablik, she moves freely across a continuum of artist models which include experiencer, reporter, analyst and activist. Her interest lies with the dematerialisation of art as object, and its re materialisation in the world of experience and ideas.

Deirdre worked for 20 years in Primary Education as a Teacher and Headteacher and was awarded an M.A. in Education in 1988. She left the profession for health reasons in 1996 and studied for six years at the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury, where she was awarded a BA Hons in Fine Art in 2002.

She lives in Deal, on the Kent Coast.