To listen again to the review of the exhibition on Radio 4 Saturday Review:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/saturdayreview.shtml
The reviewers were as follows:
Tom Sutcliffe - presenter
David Aaronovitch – writer and broadcaster
Michael Arditti – novelist
Malorie Blackman - writer of literature and television drama for children and young adults
Monday, August 4, 2008
Collaboration between Gemma Anderson, Artist, and Dr McInerny, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Bethlem Royal Hospital. Essay by Dr Tim McInerny
Throughout the development of psychiatry there has always been an association with the arts. It could be argued that the most fundamental creative relationship has been with the visual arts as a means of understanding mental disorder, as a representation of the social and morale decline that is associated with it, as a form of treatment and as a means of expression for the patient.
Gemma Anderson and Dr McInerny wanted to explore this relationship in a manner that related to the story of mental disorder and its historical representation that also was a visual metaphor for the therapeutic alliances that run between doctors and patients in mental health settings.
We hoped to create a series of portraits of the internal worlds of psychiatric patients and their doctors and to move away from the written representation of mental illness and the knowledge that the connection between a doctor and patient is mostly through words. Instead we wanted to create images that provoke the viewer into creating a language themselves to understand how a patient might be experiencing symptoms of mental illness and how the doctor listens, formulates and treats.
In forensic psychiatry the stories that patients carry with them are often distressing and violent. How does the psychiatrist hear such tragedies and how can they process them into meaningful therapy? We hope to create portraits that reflect relationships in psychiatric care towards recovery and return to society.
Forensic psychiatry is that part of medicine which provides care and assessment of the mentally disordered offender. Forensic psychiatry has a long history in the U.K. arising out of Bedlam Hospital over 150 years ago. Early psychiatry was often pre-occupied with the appearance of individuals as a key to their morale and psychic inner world. This science of physiognomy manifested itself in the analysis of the facial structure. The measuring of eyes, nose and lips was an indicator of the internal mental pathology. When Broadmoor Hospital opened in the 1880s patients were photographed on admission. Their facial characteristics, demeanour and affect was believed to be a causative factor in their illness rather than a representation of the distress they might be experiencing.
Broadmoor Hospital was also to recognise that within its patient population visual creativity was often a powerful representation of their internal stress. Amongst their patients was Richard Dadd, now recognised as amongst the most eminent pre-Raphaelite group of painters. Dadd was a patient at Broadmoor Hospital following the stabbing to death of his father provoked by voices and paranoia. He was eventually to die in the hospital where he lived for many years. Dadd was to paint magical worlds stimulated by the fairy gardens of Shakespeare but also beautiful portraits of the doctor superintendents at Broadmoor. The patient, Richard Dadd, was in effect creating a visual representation of the therapist.
The 20th Century led to the development of the creative therapies as a form of expression and a path towards recovery. In its turn outsider art has become a representation of the psychiatric patient's role in society and in the mid-20th Century a representation of the anti-psychiatry movement as championed by Foucault and R D Laing.
As psychiatry became political so did the care of patients, ultimately leading to the movement across Western civilisation towards care in the community; the return of psychiatry and patients to society.
The last decade has perhaps seen a reversal of such emancipation. The contemporary world has become once again increasingly fearful of the psychiatric patient and the potential risk of violence that they associate with them. Tabloid hysteria, new levels of terrorist destructiveness and the unacceptability of risk has led to the growth of the asylums again in the form of secure hospitals and the coinage of a new phrase, dangerous severe personality disorder.
As a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist working at the interface between medicine and law, the offender and the mentally ill, Dr McInerny wanted to open up the new secure asylums to creative expression through portraiture. Gemma Anderson was given the opportunity to attend in-patient units to hear the stories of patients and discover the therapeutic process of rehabilitation.
These series of portraits are etchings that were created directly from the individuals involved. The doctor is not identified amongst the group of individuals exhibited. This is intentional to ensure that the viewer, as the artist, will "treat" them in the same way. It is hoped that by viewing a doctor and patient in such a manner, the viewer himself creates a therapeutic relationship with those on display.
The patients represented here all suffer major mental illnesses characterised by paranoid delusions of fear and danger, or voices that are persistent, critical and abusive, and an experience in which the self gradually disintegrates in the face of a world that is hostile. The doctor must listen, reassure, contain, treat and above all provide hope.
The finely drawn lines are diagrammatic and descriptive and become a poetic description of the individuals emotional anatomy in a way that is both transparent but also enigmatic. These portraits have a clear historical resonance - not only with the past of the asylums but also with the life stories of the individuals portrayed. They are a representation of how the early pseudo-sciences of phrenology and comparative anatomy have a place in the modern world and in the modern mind of the viewer.
Gemma Anderson and Dr McInerny wanted to explore this relationship in a manner that related to the story of mental disorder and its historical representation that also was a visual metaphor for the therapeutic alliances that run between doctors and patients in mental health settings.
We hoped to create a series of portraits of the internal worlds of psychiatric patients and their doctors and to move away from the written representation of mental illness and the knowledge that the connection between a doctor and patient is mostly through words. Instead we wanted to create images that provoke the viewer into creating a language themselves to understand how a patient might be experiencing symptoms of mental illness and how the doctor listens, formulates and treats.
In forensic psychiatry the stories that patients carry with them are often distressing and violent. How does the psychiatrist hear such tragedies and how can they process them into meaningful therapy? We hope to create portraits that reflect relationships in psychiatric care towards recovery and return to society.
Forensic psychiatry is that part of medicine which provides care and assessment of the mentally disordered offender. Forensic psychiatry has a long history in the U.K. arising out of Bedlam Hospital over 150 years ago. Early psychiatry was often pre-occupied with the appearance of individuals as a key to their morale and psychic inner world. This science of physiognomy manifested itself in the analysis of the facial structure. The measuring of eyes, nose and lips was an indicator of the internal mental pathology. When Broadmoor Hospital opened in the 1880s patients were photographed on admission. Their facial characteristics, demeanour and affect was believed to be a causative factor in their illness rather than a representation of the distress they might be experiencing.
Broadmoor Hospital was also to recognise that within its patient population visual creativity was often a powerful representation of their internal stress. Amongst their patients was Richard Dadd, now recognised as amongst the most eminent pre-Raphaelite group of painters. Dadd was a patient at Broadmoor Hospital following the stabbing to death of his father provoked by voices and paranoia. He was eventually to die in the hospital where he lived for many years. Dadd was to paint magical worlds stimulated by the fairy gardens of Shakespeare but also beautiful portraits of the doctor superintendents at Broadmoor. The patient, Richard Dadd, was in effect creating a visual representation of the therapist.
The 20th Century led to the development of the creative therapies as a form of expression and a path towards recovery. In its turn outsider art has become a representation of the psychiatric patient's role in society and in the mid-20th Century a representation of the anti-psychiatry movement as championed by Foucault and R D Laing.
As psychiatry became political so did the care of patients, ultimately leading to the movement across Western civilisation towards care in the community; the return of psychiatry and patients to society.
The last decade has perhaps seen a reversal of such emancipation. The contemporary world has become once again increasingly fearful of the psychiatric patient and the potential risk of violence that they associate with them. Tabloid hysteria, new levels of terrorist destructiveness and the unacceptability of risk has led to the growth of the asylums again in the form of secure hospitals and the coinage of a new phrase, dangerous severe personality disorder.
As a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist working at the interface between medicine and law, the offender and the mentally ill, Dr McInerny wanted to open up the new secure asylums to creative expression through portraiture. Gemma Anderson was given the opportunity to attend in-patient units to hear the stories of patients and discover the therapeutic process of rehabilitation.
These series of portraits are etchings that were created directly from the individuals involved. The doctor is not identified amongst the group of individuals exhibited. This is intentional to ensure that the viewer, as the artist, will "treat" them in the same way. It is hoped that by viewing a doctor and patient in such a manner, the viewer himself creates a therapeutic relationship with those on display.
The patients represented here all suffer major mental illnesses characterised by paranoid delusions of fear and danger, or voices that are persistent, critical and abusive, and an experience in which the self gradually disintegrates in the face of a world that is hostile. The doctor must listen, reassure, contain, treat and above all provide hope.
The finely drawn lines are diagrammatic and descriptive and become a poetic description of the individuals emotional anatomy in a way that is both transparent but also enigmatic. These portraits have a clear historical resonance - not only with the past of the asylums but also with the life stories of the individuals portrayed. They are a representation of how the early pseudo-sciences of phrenology and comparative anatomy have a place in the modern world and in the modern mind of the viewer.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Post show blogging
It is good to see that the blog is continuing to function after the opening of the show. Tamiko suggested that now is the time when it might really start to take off...
Email to jva@jerwoodspace.co.uk from Judith Mottram 24.7.08
I'd rather like to pass some comments on to the team involved in the Experiment in collaboration team, particulalry in relation to their
blog:
Edmonds and Candy published a book about collaborations in which they identified the different ways in which parties with different expertise came together. They answer the question about technicians.
Explorations in Art and Technology, Linda Candy and Ernest Edmonds, 2002, Springer-Verlag, London.
There have been other studies about how artists work. One of the reasons the activity may be funded, or research might be undertaken, is that we can conceive of operationally 'doable' question for investigation in the arena, such as: What happens, or what is so special about the creativity of 'artists', or how does innovation work, or are there really any differences between 'artistic' creativity and creativity in other disciplines? As a form of cultural production, collaboration might be a way of expressing our doubt about the agenda of our discipline - it is a question deserving of serious address.
blog:
Edmonds and Candy published a book about collaborations in which they identified the different ways in which parties with different expertise came together. They answer the question about technicians.
Explorations in Art and Technology, Linda Candy and Ernest Edmonds, 2002, Springer-Verlag, London.
There have been other studies about how artists work. One of the reasons the activity may be funded, or research might be undertaken, is that we can conceive of operationally 'doable' question for investigation in the arena, such as: What happens, or what is so special about the creativity of 'artists', or how does innovation work, or are there really any differences between 'artistic' creativity and creativity in other disciplines? As a form of cultural production, collaboration might be a way of expressing our doubt about the agenda of our discipline - it is a question deserving of serious address.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Post by Dora Tang RE: Jackson Webb and Dora Tang
'i think part of the biggest issue with this show was being able to portray the process of our collaboration, when we were trying to decide between an obviously edited video piece or something that was more crude it was really important to consider justifying the collaborative work. how much did we consider the audience in deciding the final work that was shown? and was it difficult for us to move away from displaying more finished polished objects?
with the edited version of the video ( which was also more obviously colour corrected) it sat in a space which was neither the literal interpretation of the process nor a complete and finished video art work. what was it that we were saying about our own work?
in discussion Charlotte said that perhaps we should be brave and show something that was more literal and perhaps more true to the project?
it seemed perhaps that there were two processes and perhaps tasks that we were and have been dealing with in the project and perhaps the last few weeks has highlighted that as we were coming closer to the hang.
1. the process of questioning the notion of collaboration through practise
2. challenging, using the gallery space ( /viewer) to show a process or research or just something.
i found the latter part quite difficult, my experience of galleries and finished products of work are limited, and my experience of the art world lies mainly in research unfinished outcomes and so harder for me to challenge the space that we were entering with documents of work?
did the other collaborations find this? did they also encounter the same questions that we did in showing the process of the collaborations? did the collaborations feel as if the shown objects depicted the collaborative process? how important was it to the other collaborations ( and ourselves) to show a process or an outcome of the collaboration?'
with the edited version of the video ( which was also more obviously colour corrected) it sat in a space which was neither the literal interpretation of the process nor a complete and finished video art work. what was it that we were saying about our own work?
in discussion Charlotte said that perhaps we should be brave and show something that was more literal and perhaps more true to the project?
it seemed perhaps that there were two processes and perhaps tasks that we were and have been dealing with in the project and perhaps the last few weeks has highlighted that as we were coming closer to the hang.
1. the process of questioning the notion of collaboration through practise
2. challenging, using the gallery space ( /viewer) to show a process or research or just something.
i found the latter part quite difficult, my experience of galleries and finished products of work are limited, and my experience of the art world lies mainly in research unfinished outcomes and so harder for me to challenge the space that we were entering with documents of work?
did the other collaborations find this? did they also encounter the same questions that we did in showing the process of the collaborations? did the collaborations feel as if the shown objects depicted the collaborative process? how important was it to the other collaborations ( and ourselves) to show a process or an outcome of the collaboration?'
Thursday, July 24, 2008
In the liminal space of making: the blog as an analogy of process
some key concepts and processes explored by the 6 artist-groups: encounter, dialogue, participatory, environment, authorship, chance, assemblage, from within practice, how space is occupied
This blog was initiated as a kind of seventh project-space for the six artist/collaborator groups to dialogue ideas, themselves, each other and act as a litmus paper of process – artistic and daily life. Not content-specific, the AEIC blog resides in the time and (dialogue-)space of the collaborative projects and the potential to 'evidence process' in a fluid and intuitive way, as opposed to its documentation alone, or in which documentation becomes an artwork or event itself. Rather than having a discreet ‘purpose,’ the blog’s appearance was in-the-order-of happenstance, existing as an incomplete and patchy notepad. In the words of Rilke on the fragmentary nature of existence and artistic creation:
“Shattered beings are best represented by bits and pieces.” (1.)
The blog’s function is symbolic of the methodology and context of AEIC as a space of potential collaboration, it may or may not (for example) encourage an awareness of and possible cross-fertilisation between the artist groups, or be an opportunity to show a bit of the seams and workings of the projects-sans-the-need to ‘prettify’ for the public or halt the process in order to show bits of finished products, it could be an ‘anti-press release.’ It is ongoing and it is for all of us to decide.
Blogs have been going since the mid to late 90s and have become widespread over the last few years. Essentially a form of social media and as such a part of our 21st century social fabric, blogs and the 'blogosphere' are a potential part or residue of any contemporary artists' expression, interrogation, or deliberate disruption, particularly with reference to “artwork as social interstice” or “relational art,” (2.) in which collaboration of some sort is a pre-requisite. The blog’s composition as a form of social archive also relates to a continued (re)interpretation of the archive by artists and writers from Walter Benjamin (3.) to the contemporary works of for example, Sophie Calle (4.) or Uriel Orlow (5.).
PROCESS...
= coming into being without end
= a thick description
= 4-dimensional
= reprise
= time – space – interchangeable – fluid
The blog allows for a partial, chance topography (6.) of process, limited by a linearity which is bound by date and time. The diary format and time/date/month/year chronology is a central function of a blog, encouraging an (auto)biographical trajectory of eventhood and happenstance. The connection between topography, the ‘evidential traces’ of the 6 projects and the moments of occurrence relate to the poetic act; as a moment of continual (re)appearance, reverberating in space-time. The use of a series of ‘scatter-proofs’ as a catalogue-in-process is therefore a fitting summation;
“space contains compressed time.” (7.)
Navigating the blog involves a degree of katabatic mining, an excavation performed unpredictably by each individual whose at-whim meandering and potential commentary, transforms spectator into partaker: engaged in the process–dialogue, even if it is as a ghostly palimpsest (sometimes I look through a blog on which I have been a member, to find a comment on a 'post,' made weeks or months after the event or posting). Blogs are ever-changing, ephemeral and unstable, existing in a digital virtuality, likely to crash and then disappear much like an artistic process itself: a string of disappearing moments.
Lisa Alexander, July 2008
http://www.lisaalexander.co.uk/
LIMINAL SPACE resides on the threshhold of experience - an in-between space in which there is constant exchange of methods, concepts, ideologies. Liminal indicates transition. A threshold is a place or state of flux, one in which boundaries are crossed, exploded, explored.
---------------
NOTES:
1. I cite a quotation made by Heathfield in: Shattered Anatomies: traces of the body in performance (1997), eds Heathfield, A, Templeton, F, Quick, A: A boxed collection of mixed media contributions, including objects, acetates, models, recordings and loose-leaf texts, commissioned from a diverse range of international artists and writers within the field of contemporary performance, responding to questions of the body in current art practice and what happens in the translation from event to record.
2. Bourriaud, N (2002), Relational Aesthetics / Nicolas Bourriaud ; translated by Simon Pleasance & Fronza Woods, Dijon, Presses du reel, p.3
3. See for example: Benjamin, W (1999), The Arcades Project; translated by Howard Eiland & Kevin McLaughlin, London, Bellknap Press
4. Most recently at French Pavillion, Venice Biennale 2007: Take care of yourself :Calle arranged an ‘archive’ of responses by over 250 women to an email sent to her by an ex-lover
5. For example Orlow’s Housed Memory at The Wiener Library and the RIBA architecture gallery, London (2000) or Unleashing the Archhive, School of Advanced Study/The National Archives, London, book, video and poster (collaboration with Ruth Maclennan) (2004)
6. See: Spoerri, D (1995), An anecdoted topography of chance, London, Atlas Press
7. Bachelard, G (1964), The Poetics of Space, Boston, MA, Beacon Press, p.8
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Question
What is a collaborative art practice?
How relevant is artist collaboration within the current art climate?
Is collaborative practice an important part of the development of ideas?
Who is your ideal collaborator and why?
How relevant is artist collaboration within the current art climate?
Is collaborative practice an important part of the development of ideas?
Who is your ideal collaborator and why?
Friday, July 4, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
presenting process led art?
the research that has been undertaken between Jackson Webb and Dora has been highly research based and process led, but how and what is the best way to present and show the work within a gallery context that doesn't undermine the research that has been undertaken?
filming our discussions? i wonder whether this will do justice to the path we have taken to get to this point.
i guess we shall see......
filming our discussions? i wonder whether this will do justice to the path we have taken to get to this point.
i guess we shall see......
Dora's questions for filming
1. Recently there has been a huge drive socially for collaboration encouraged by funding.where has this need arisen? how much do you associate your collaboration with this drive? and how much has it or not supported your practise?
2. what is the space that resides between collaborators?
3. For this experiment Jackson Webb has been seen as one ego collaborating with another ego. what are the implications of this when there are 3 ego's involved and also for a shared ego to collaborate with another?
2. what is the space that resides between collaborators?
3. For this experiment Jackson Webb has been seen as one ego collaborating with another ego. what are the implications of this when there are 3 ego's involved and also for a shared ego to collaborate with another?
Friday, June 27, 2008
Ideas - from Charlotte
Areas I want to discuss during filming this weekend:
Self-creating images (micro/macro, fractals)
The Institution
Internal dialogue
Shared authorship
Successes/failures of our project
Implosion/assumption that collaboration is worthwhile
Self-creating images (micro/macro, fractals)
The Institution
Internal dialogue
Shared authorship
Successes/failures of our project
Implosion/assumption that collaboration is worthwhile
Blog Functionality
During the project, we've found it difficult to find a way of recording our dialogue/process in a way which is readable to the public. This has raised some questions for me about blogging, forums and web applications in general, and I think it is worth the group as a whole looking at the functionality of this blog, how it works for the group, and how it might work for a viewer.
Is it working as it was meant to - e.g as a way of documenting a process? Is it a communication tool for us, or a way of communicating to an audience? Can it be both? Does having a chronological format make sense?
I just wonder what it is like to read, and what it is revealing to an audience.... has anyone had any feedback? Is anyone reading this stuff?
Is it working as it was meant to - e.g as a way of documenting a process? Is it a communication tool for us, or a way of communicating to an audience? Can it be both? Does having a chronological format make sense?
I just wonder what it is like to read, and what it is revealing to an audience.... has anyone had any feedback? Is anyone reading this stuff?
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Some Questions From Mark
During our filming on Sunday I will be asking Charlotte and Dora some questions including:
1. In what sense might a collaborator be conceived of as a technician? (This question stems from how we started out, but I was thinking also about the other collaborations in the show.)
2. Has collaboration become a more ubiquitous form of cultural production in general as well as in art practices? If so, why do you think?
3. Paul’s film could be seen as a collaborative ‘explosion’ – a proliferation of creativity and authorship. If, like Tamiko has suggested, our work might ‘implode’, what does this mean and is it useful?
1. In what sense might a collaborator be conceived of as a technician? (This question stems from how we started out, but I was thinking also about the other collaborations in the show.)
2. Has collaboration become a more ubiquitous form of cultural production in general as well as in art practices? If so, why do you think?
3. Paul’s film could be seen as a collaborative ‘explosion’ – a proliferation of creativity and authorship. If, like Tamiko has suggested, our work might ‘implode’, what does this mean and is it useful?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Jackson Webb & Dora's Blog
This is the blog we are now using to communicate with each other. We had been using another online forum, but it was really ugly and confusing so we copied all our messages to this nice simple blog so they would be easier to read. It isn't really intended for public viewing, but it gives an unedited account of our correspondance during this project. To view go to http://aeic.wordpress.com/
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Paul's Film Questionnaire answered by Dora
We have been thinking about making a film of ourselves to try and record our dialogue - we thought that Paul's film questionnaire might help us.....
Will your film answer the question?
the question of the necessity of collaboration?a valid collaboration? work unconnected to an ego?
2. What colour, number and country is your film?
grey
Will your film answer the question?
the question of the necessity of collaboration?a valid collaboration? work unconnected to an ego?
2. What colour, number and country is your film?
grey
3. Is your film daytime or night time or other time?
dusk
4. Which extreme emotion is your film?
non
5. When did your film (going to) happen?
without time, different time frames
6. Would your film push or be pushed?
self pushed
7. Does your film lead or follow?
leads into itself
8. How fast is your film?
breathing pace
9. Will your film nourish or neglect (take information from) a time line?
10. Will your film cooperate willingly or have to be taken by force
(rebel)?
stand alone
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Glob Blog
We have developed a blog, since the beginning, to document the game as it progresses, and to continue dialogue between actual meetings. An edited version will be made public within the next couple of weeks.
The meetings also continue to provide great developments, and interesting, if confusing, collaborative drawings.
The meetings also continue to provide great developments, and interesting, if confusing, collaborative drawings.
The Glean of Glob
We have been working on a computer game, generated from Daniel's universe of Glob, a place populated with numerous small characters, undertaking bizarre, tragi-comic tasks.
(drawings from Glob shown above).
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Modern Molluscs: Creatures in Progress 1
Creatures have been multiplying in my studio. When I took this photo last week, they were mostly monochrome in crystacal lamina, fibreglass tissue, concrete and steel. These marine fantasies are sometimes anthropomorphic; a blobfish/ grumpy man (top-right), an anemone/ concrete decapitated head with steel squirting from the neck (bottom-right), a flatfish/ woman wearing flowing Islamic dress (bottom-left), a spider-crab/ baby in a walker (middle). All these forms will have brightly coloured surfaces, like Ravin'n'Railin (Mollusc Escaping Shell):
Today's marine inspirations include: "Dangerous when Wet" (1953) a film starring Esther Williams with an animated sequence with Tom and Jerry (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dsALebq1yw), "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne and also the 1954 Disney film version, and vampire squids.
Here are some images relating to the creatures-in-progress:
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Posted by Gemma Anderson, 24th May
Collecting for portraits
With each portrait I work on, I go through a process of collecting objects. Some I seek out, some I find and some are given to me.
The objects all relate to the individuals history, diagnosis and dialogue in relation to the history of psychiatric and medical ideas.
Object Collected and Drawn so far…..
Bethlem Patient
Object-Butterfly (deceased)
Source-Found in curfew tower, Cushendall, Antrim.
Object-Snake skin
Source-Sought out then given by reptile shop, Belfast.
Object-Weeds
Source-Sought and found on the site of Bethlem, Lagan River, Cave Hill and Queen Street roof.
Object-Birds egg
Source-Found along river Lagan
Object-Twigs
Source-Found near giants ring, Belfast
Object-Paracetamol
Source-Sought and Bought for £0.41 in Boots Chemist
Object-Dopamine glands
Source-Images/diagrams Sought from Google Images
Object-Rock
Source-Found on street, Antrim
Object-Butterfly Knife
Source-Pending
Knockbracken Patient
Object-Bees (deceased)
Source-Given by artist who collects them
Object-Leaf ( bearing resemblance in structure to nervous system)
Rock
Source-Sought out along river Lagan, Belfast
Object-Liver (Lambs Liver, roughly similar size to human liver)
Source-Bought for £3 in butcher on king street, Belfast
Object-Windswept Bracken, (bearing resemblance to small tree)
Source- Found while climbing cave hill, Belfast.
Object-Wasp (deceased)
Source-Found in studio
Object-Robin Red Breast
Source-Sought out amongst inherited Christmas decorations
Object-Ivy Leaf
Source-Sought and found in back yard
Object-Ferns
Source-Found on decent from Cave Hill
Object-Geranium
Source-Bought in florist for £2
Collecting for portraits
With each portrait I work on, I go through a process of collecting objects. Some I seek out, some I find and some are given to me.
The objects all relate to the individuals history, diagnosis and dialogue in relation to the history of psychiatric and medical ideas.
Object Collected and Drawn so far…..
Bethlem Patient
Object-Butterfly (deceased)
Source-Found in curfew tower, Cushendall, Antrim.
Object-Snake skin
Source-Sought out then given by reptile shop, Belfast.
Object-Weeds
Source-Sought and found on the site of Bethlem, Lagan River, Cave Hill and Queen Street roof.
Object-Birds egg
Source-Found along river Lagan
Object-Twigs
Source-Found near giants ring, Belfast
Object-Paracetamol
Source-Sought and Bought for £0.41 in Boots Chemist
Object-Dopamine glands
Source-Images/diagrams Sought from Google Images
Object-Rock
Source-Found on street, Antrim
Object-Butterfly Knife
Source-Pending
Knockbracken Patient
Object-Bees (deceased)
Source-Given by artist who collects them
Object-Leaf ( bearing resemblance in structure to nervous system)
Rock
Source-Sought out along river Lagan, Belfast
Object-Liver (Lambs Liver, roughly similar size to human liver)
Source-Bought for £3 in butcher on king street, Belfast
Object-Windswept Bracken, (bearing resemblance to small tree)
Source- Found while climbing cave hill, Belfast.
Object-Wasp (deceased)
Source-Found in studio
Object-Robin Red Breast
Source-Sought out amongst inherited Christmas decorations
Object-Ivy Leaf
Source-Sought and found in back yard
Object-Ferns
Source-Found on decent from Cave Hill
Object-Geranium
Source-Bought in florist for £2
Posted by Gemma Anderson, 24th May
Bethlem Visit, Thursday 24th April
11.00am-
Meet Dr Tim McInerny at Riverhouse building in Bethlem Royal Hospital main site. (Monks oak road, Beckenham) Need photo I.D access pass and staff to bring me through corridors of looked doors to get to office.
Dr McInerny tells me about the ward he works on and explains the hierarchy of the wards from acute to minimum security. All patients in Bethlem are involuntary.
Dr McInerny tells me the patient he has identified as subject for portrait and tells me his detailed confidential history. The patient is a forensic psychiatric patient – which mean they have committed a crime, been in prison and then been referred to Bethlem. The patient had been in psychiatric hospital for 10 years, but is soon to be released.
12.00am
I visit the museum and archive at Bethlem and meet Caroline the education officer. I explain the collaboration and the ideas and we talk about the relevant material in the Bethlem archive that will help with our research. Bethlem have case studies of patients since the 15th century, Caroline and I found documents from the 19th 18th and 17th century that will be of use and will continue to communicate in order to find more specific cases which refer to physiognomy, and physiology in psychiatry.
1.00pm
Meet Dr McInerny and go to forensic ward in Riverhouse to meet patient. Set up easel and copper plate in meeting room. Begin drawing patient and conversing with patient. We talk about his experience in hospital, his diagnosis and his hopes for his life when he is released.
2.30pm
Art technician (yosef) arrives to photograph the portrait set up and the drawing on the copper plate.
3.30pm
Meet Beth, art facilitator in Bethlem main art room, look at a number of patients work, discuss the work alongside patient’s history and diagnosis and see gallery space in Bethlem.
Meeting Dr Scott, 27th April
Windsor house
Orchard house
Knockbraken a.k.a Purdysburn Hospital
11.00am
Meet Dr Scott (geriatric psychiatrist) and visit Windsor house- psychiatric unit of Belfast city hospital, meet patient and sit in on doctor patient cognitive therapy. I ask Dr Scott about the drugs issued to specific patients and the biochemical effects these have on the brain. (This information will inform my portrait)
12.00pm
Visit orchard house with Dr Scott, orchard house is a geriatric secure nursing home for elderly patients with severe dementia and wandering behaviour, meet individual patients and staff.
1.00pm
Visit Knockbracken Hospital, (1890). Like Bethlem Knockbracken is notorious in Northern Ireland as the largest asylum and still has pseudonym of Purdysburn as Bethlem has Bedlam.
Tour the site, see old working farm for in patients, different wards. Built in the Victorian era, the hospital is situated in a large wooded area and the architecture allows for maximum natural light.
Dr Scott introduces me to geriatric ward staff and patients.
Ellsy Portrait Thursday 8th May
Knockbracken Hospital Belfast
Mahee Ward (named after Mahee Island, Strangford Lough)
1.00pm
Arrive at ward just after the hospital lunchtime. I meet staff and Ellsy and begin setting up etching plate in the now redundant smoking room.
I meet Ellsy again and get her seated comfortably in an armchair in the smoking room within the hospital ward.
1.30pm
I begin to draw Ellsy, as I am drawing her we talk and I learn that she grew up streets away from where I grew up in Belfast. We then talk about the Botanic Gardens (she tells me her favourite flowers are geraniums and her favourite bird is a robin red breast) and the market. Then she says “Belfast is not safe now”, I ask her how she knows and she says she reads it in the papers, and she would be too frightened to go anywhere in Belfast now.
She tells me that her mother died when she was three in childbirth with her sister and she was raised by her aunts. She says she has always been nervous and fearful and told me that she constantly felt she had “done something wrong” even though people constantly reassured her that she had not. Her working life had been in a children’s clothes shop in Belfast and she had never married.
Previous to being in hospital she had lived with her sister but her anxieties became too severe. I asked her what she was worrying about at the moment and she replied “I am worried that the devil has got me”. I asked her why she thought the devil (if he existed) would be interested in her and she replied “I don’t know”. We then talked about her religion (Catholicism) feelings of guilt and her relationship with the church. She said she didn’t go to church anymore.
I tried to reassure her that that I didn’t think her worrying about the devil was doing her health any good and asked her where she would like to be. She said she would like to be at home and able to look onto the garden. I asked her if she could picture being at home and try to think about that a much as she could as that would help her mind to concentrate on a hopeful scenario. She agreed that it would be good for her to concentrate on something positive.
We carried on talking about different things until I had completed the drawing. I showed her the drawing and she said “that is very good, you should be pleased”. I thanked her and she then went back to her seat in front of the television. It is a very sunny day outside.
(Ellsy is a pseudonym)
Bethlem Visit, Thursday 24th April
11.00am-
Meet Dr Tim McInerny at Riverhouse building in Bethlem Royal Hospital main site. (Monks oak road, Beckenham) Need photo I.D access pass and staff to bring me through corridors of looked doors to get to office.
Dr McInerny tells me about the ward he works on and explains the hierarchy of the wards from acute to minimum security. All patients in Bethlem are involuntary.
Dr McInerny tells me the patient he has identified as subject for portrait and tells me his detailed confidential history. The patient is a forensic psychiatric patient – which mean they have committed a crime, been in prison and then been referred to Bethlem. The patient had been in psychiatric hospital for 10 years, but is soon to be released.
12.00am
I visit the museum and archive at Bethlem and meet Caroline the education officer. I explain the collaboration and the ideas and we talk about the relevant material in the Bethlem archive that will help with our research. Bethlem have case studies of patients since the 15th century, Caroline and I found documents from the 19th 18th and 17th century that will be of use and will continue to communicate in order to find more specific cases which refer to physiognomy, and physiology in psychiatry.
1.00pm
Meet Dr McInerny and go to forensic ward in Riverhouse to meet patient. Set up easel and copper plate in meeting room. Begin drawing patient and conversing with patient. We talk about his experience in hospital, his diagnosis and his hopes for his life when he is released.
2.30pm
Art technician (yosef) arrives to photograph the portrait set up and the drawing on the copper plate.
3.30pm
Meet Beth, art facilitator in Bethlem main art room, look at a number of patients work, discuss the work alongside patient’s history and diagnosis and see gallery space in Bethlem.
Meeting Dr Scott, 27th April
Windsor house
Orchard house
Knockbraken a.k.a Purdysburn Hospital
11.00am
Meet Dr Scott (geriatric psychiatrist) and visit Windsor house- psychiatric unit of Belfast city hospital, meet patient and sit in on doctor patient cognitive therapy. I ask Dr Scott about the drugs issued to specific patients and the biochemical effects these have on the brain. (This information will inform my portrait)
12.00pm
Visit orchard house with Dr Scott, orchard house is a geriatric secure nursing home for elderly patients with severe dementia and wandering behaviour, meet individual patients and staff.
1.00pm
Visit Knockbracken Hospital, (1890). Like Bethlem Knockbracken is notorious in Northern Ireland as the largest asylum and still has pseudonym of Purdysburn as Bethlem has Bedlam.
Tour the site, see old working farm for in patients, different wards. Built in the Victorian era, the hospital is situated in a large wooded area and the architecture allows for maximum natural light.
Dr Scott introduces me to geriatric ward staff and patients.
Ellsy Portrait Thursday 8th May
Knockbracken Hospital Belfast
Mahee Ward (named after Mahee Island, Strangford Lough)
1.00pm
Arrive at ward just after the hospital lunchtime. I meet staff and Ellsy and begin setting up etching plate in the now redundant smoking room.
I meet Ellsy again and get her seated comfortably in an armchair in the smoking room within the hospital ward.
1.30pm
I begin to draw Ellsy, as I am drawing her we talk and I learn that she grew up streets away from where I grew up in Belfast. We then talk about the Botanic Gardens (she tells me her favourite flowers are geraniums and her favourite bird is a robin red breast) and the market. Then she says “Belfast is not safe now”, I ask her how she knows and she says she reads it in the papers, and she would be too frightened to go anywhere in Belfast now.
She tells me that her mother died when she was three in childbirth with her sister and she was raised by her aunts. She says she has always been nervous and fearful and told me that she constantly felt she had “done something wrong” even though people constantly reassured her that she had not. Her working life had been in a children’s clothes shop in Belfast and she had never married.
Previous to being in hospital she had lived with her sister but her anxieties became too severe. I asked her what she was worrying about at the moment and she replied “I am worried that the devil has got me”. I asked her why she thought the devil (if he existed) would be interested in her and she replied “I don’t know”. We then talked about her religion (Catholicism) feelings of guilt and her relationship with the church. She said she didn’t go to church anymore.
I tried to reassure her that that I didn’t think her worrying about the devil was doing her health any good and asked her where she would like to be. She said she would like to be at home and able to look onto the garden. I asked her if she could picture being at home and try to think about that a much as she could as that would help her mind to concentrate on a hopeful scenario. She agreed that it would be good for her to concentrate on something positive.
We carried on talking about different things until I had completed the drawing. I showed her the drawing and she said “that is very good, you should be pleased”. I thanked her and she then went back to her seat in front of the television. It is a very sunny day outside.
(Ellsy is a pseudonym)
Friday, May 23, 2008
Email from Paul Richards (19.5.08) RE: the blog
Dear All,
I found the meeting at the Jerwood last week very stimulating - It was great to put faces to names and hear about the projects. I am concerned, however that most of the group haven't signed up for the blog yet and no one has posted yet - I have lots of things I would like to put up but feel like it could become like reciting a daily monologue. The blog is a really interesting approach and significantly one of the things that has the potential to take this exhibition beyond the conventional group show format.
I think we would all benefit from a daily dialog between the many projects, a chance to push all of our practices into new unexplored territory. Interactive discussion would take the project to a different level, making fascinating viewing for the archaeologist/ art viewer - tracing the histories of the work.
This exhibition's vision is clearly about process - and we should embrace that visibly. Otherwise the show should be renamed an exercise in self affirmation.
Lets post thoughts, ideas, anxieties*, empty paint pots, dinner bills, chocolate wrappers. messages to each other, decisions, changes in plan....Lets serialize the process thoroughly - so that outsiders are gripped to logon every day and see how the art apprentices are getting on.
Lets throw some shit to the wall - who knows - some of it might stick!
Good luck to everybody with the projects and I really look forward to seeing more/ hearing more about them,
best wishes
Paul
*this message could be included in the blog
I found the meeting at the Jerwood last week very stimulating - It was great to put faces to names and hear about the projects. I am concerned, however that most of the group haven't signed up for the blog yet and no one has posted yet - I have lots of things I would like to put up but feel like it could become like reciting a daily monologue. The blog is a really interesting approach and significantly one of the things that has the potential to take this exhibition beyond the conventional group show format.
I think we would all benefit from a daily dialog between the many projects, a chance to push all of our practices into new unexplored territory. Interactive discussion would take the project to a different level, making fascinating viewing for the archaeologist/ art viewer - tracing the histories of the work.
This exhibition's vision is clearly about process - and we should embrace that visibly. Otherwise the show should be renamed an exercise in self affirmation.
Lets post thoughts, ideas, anxieties*, empty paint pots, dinner bills, chocolate wrappers. messages to each other, decisions, changes in plan....Lets serialize the process thoroughly - so that outsiders are gripped to logon every day and see how the art apprentices are getting on.
Lets throw some shit to the wall - who knows - some of it might stick!
Good luck to everybody with the projects and I really look forward to seeing more/ hearing more about them,
best wishes
Paul
*this message could be included in the blog
Thursday, May 22, 2008
INVITE TO OUR GROUP
Dear All
We have invited everyone to join the Yahoo group Experimentincollaboration, in case you want to have a look at what we've been doing...
Charlotte
We have invited everyone to join the Yahoo group Experimentincollaboration, in case you want to have a look at what we've been doing...
Charlotte
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Film Questionnaire: FILM - F
Will your film answer the question?
It'll keep the question in mind.
2. What colour, number and country is your film?
Black and white, 40, Coombe Dingle.
3. Is your film daytime or night time or other time?
Most of the day and probably going into the evening.
4. Which extreme emotion is your film?
Sadness, violence, cheekiness.
5. When did your film (going to) happen?
Next couple of weeks.
6. Would your film push or be pushed?
Hold its ground.
7. Does your film lead or follow?
Follows
8. How fast is your film?
Slow but stuttering.
9. Will your film nourish or neglect (take information from) a time line?
Adhere to its own?
10. Will your film cooperate willingly or have to be taken by force (rebel) ?
Allow itself to be taken.
Film Questionnaire: FILM - E
Will your film answer the question?
no, it will answer the urge
2. What colour, number and country is your film?
flesh, 69,the island (of dogs)
3. Is your film daytime or night time or other time?
it exists outside of time
4. Which extreme emotion is your film?
loss
5. When did your film (going to) happen?
the other night
6. Would your film push or be pushed?
pull
7. Does your film lead or follow?
depends what side your on
8. How fast is your film?
slow
9. Will your film nourish or neglect (take information from) a time line?
neglect, like neglecting to go to school.
10. Will your film cooperate willingly or have to be taken by force (rebel) ? it will cooperate but will you want it?
Film Questionnaire: FILM - D
Will your film answer the question?
yes, there will very much be a concentration on one activity. There won't so much be a rupture of another intensity, but more another intensity taking place alongside
2. What colour, number and country is your film?
Blue - Night time sky
number 9
China
3. Is your film daytime or night time or other time?
night time
4. Which extreme emotion is your film?
tranquility
5. When did your film (going to) happen?
in the present, or it could be a daydream
6. Would your film push or be pushed?
push
7. Does your film lead or follow?
Lead
8. How fast is your film?
It is slow. It is stretching the time of a simple moment
9. Will your film nourish or neglect (take information from) a time line?
it will nourish, or more I would say, it will effect the other things on the timeline
10. Will your film cooperate willingly or have to be taken by force (rebel) ?
cooperate seductively
Film Questionnaire: FILM - C
Will your film answer the question?
My Film will set the questions
2. What colour, number and country is your film?
BLACK, DEEP RED, WHITE HOT - Majorca & UK
3. Is your film daytime or night time or other time?
double time - over time - curve time - multiple time
4. Which extreme emotion is your film?
Floating, Phoning, Beating, Being Beaten
5. When did your film (going to) happen?
The Summer of 1999
6. Would your film push or be pushed?
Shove
7. Does your film lead or follow?
Lead
8. How fast is your film?
Time is an illusion and speed doubly so.
My film is the slowest and the fastest imaginable.
The very last breath suspended ad infinitum.
The very first mouthful quicker than scone.
9. Will your film nourish or neglect (take information from) a time line?
Fertilise the timeline - and then steal it's chips.
10. Will your film cooperate willingly or have to be taken by force (rebel)?
KICKING AND SCREAMING - BUT NOBODY CAN HEAR
Film Questionnaire: FILM - B
Will your film answer the question?
yes
2. What colour, number and country is your film?
grey, red, blue. number 3. uk
3. Is your film daytime or night time or other time?
day time
4. Which extreme emotion is your film?
leaping, hoping, crouching, ambushing
5. When did your film (going to) happen?
last april
6. Would your film push or be pushed?
Push
7. Does your film lead or follow?
Lead
8. How fast is your film?
its like walking in the rain. determined but frantic. it will have to stop and take a breath now and then
9. Will your film nourish or neglect (take information from) a time line?
Nourish the time line
10. Will your film cooperate willingly or have to be taken by force (rebel) ?
Our film is the model of good cooperation
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