While I’m here and am seemingly having a bout of Saturday night insomnia…. I’ll deal with the psychotic cats that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Just so I’m not keeping you in suspense or anything……
A couple of weeks ago I popped over to Manchester and decided to buy the latest edition of Cabinet Magazine. I love Cabinet but it’s hella expensive. Seven pounds a pop! However Brian Dillon is their UK editor who never fails to please… and there always texts on really interesting themes. My favorite in the current edition is an article by Adam Jasper on the nineteenth century artist Louis Wain. Initially a painter of upstanding and gentlemanly anthropomorphized cats, which earned him money and fame, Wain gradually slipped into schizophrenia during later life. This transition is evidenced by the enormous change in his cat portraits, which according to Adam Jasper are now used as a text book demonstration of the optical effects associated with psychosis. Jasper quotes Hans Prinzhorn in asserting that “such dense edge-to-edge work (was) motived by a kind of horror vacui, as if the confrontation with the void was being fought out on paper.”
Its funny how I can’t stop staring at these crazy felines. They are fascinating… but maybe not the greatest thing for me getting obsessed with if I ever intend to sleep tonight….
I had a wonderful time in London last weekend. The old red wine monster got me big time on Saturday night, followed by the gin and curry monster on Sunday. By the time Monday arrived I was feeling bloaty and green with overindulgence and lack of sleep- not exactly the perfect circumstances for sitting down to the Art V’s Rehab conference. Yet bravely I soldiered on and spent pretty much the the entire time wedged in a corner of the conference room… saying very little. My networking with a hangover skills could use some work!
I’m very glad indeed that I braved it though, as it was a super event.
The format was well crafted, with three very interesting speakers presenting followed by group discussion on questions that had been posed by all delegates. I was happy that my question came out as one of the first to be discussed: ‘What role can art institutions (galleries and theatres) play in mental health rehabilitation’. This provoked lots of interesting responses – both positive and negative. It was widely felt that an official public space such as a gallery lends a sense of legitimacy to participatory projects for groups who may come from the position of ‘outsider’ due to long term hospitalisation etc.
Its interesting though, that the language around ‘mental health’ remained cemented in quite a conventional ‘us and them’ type of perspective. As in ‘how do we the artists work with… them.. the mentals.’ Not that the conversation was in any way disrespectful at all, but I was relieved when Jacqueline Ede flagged that the term ‘mental health’ can occasionally be problematic because it brackets an experience outside of normal life. I’ve struggled with this in my own writing and tend to try to use the term ’emotional and psychological disturbance’ where possible. However even this falls short of the mark. I wonder if artists might have a role to play in finding language to better express the fact that the human brain varies incredibly from person to person and that bracketing certain psychological behaviors as ‘illness’ can be detrimental.
On this subject, I’m lucky to be in possession of a catalogue from the Extreme Bodies: Extreme Minds Festival that took place in Zagreb last week. Its really engrossing and I’ve just tackled the first essay called How Did We All Become Mad? which deals with the idea that many aspects of everyday life are becoming pathologised as a result of the actions of the pharmaceutical industry. Its also got a really interesting perspective on mental health issues as ‘natural selection’ due to the excessively complex structure of our brains. What is particularly lovely is the author’s assertion that:
‘the world is extremely heterogeneous and everyone ought to be able to find some niche in which he or she can thrive in their own particular way, according to their own particular criteria. Todays’ evolutionary biologists are increasingly revealing that the creation of specific niches is just as important for survival as natural selection, which means that we ought, instead of adjusting to fixed circumstances, change these circumstances in such a way that they respond to the needs of our different brains.’
Zoran Roško How did we all become mad?
For more on Art V’s Rehab please visit artvsrehab.tumblr.com
Blimey look at this…. its been a long time since I wrote anything on here. This I conclude…… is a good thing. There is something about sitting around writing about ‘mental health’ that breeds such a sense of intensity in the mind that its probably not very sustainable for longer periods. Taking a break from my blog is probably mentally healthy.
On Monday next week I am going along to a seminar called Art Vs Rehab and its all about uses of art in mental health treatment. The thing about it that really caught my eye is Hannah Hull’s proposed presentation about how the methodology of ‘conceptual art’ is useful in rehabilitation practice. Here is her blurb she can explain it much better than me:
Artist Hannah Hull uses a conceptual art model when working with people with backgrounds in mental health. She suggests that political, social and therapeutic aims are implicit to conceptual art, and that this model allows for a more attainable social inclusion.
I like this because I find that ‘conceptual’ art methods are often deemed to be alienating to anyone who has not been to art school. The fact that more conceptual (rather than just visual) approaches can be considered therapeutic within treatment is really quite progressive, I think. Read more about Hannah’s work here http://www.hannahhull.co.uk/
Also there is a really interesting festival happening in Croatia at the moment called Extravagent Bodies: Extravagant Minds which has got loads of interesting work about mental health and a super looking exhibition, which I am very sad to be missing. Carlos Larrondo’s video work about a psychiatric hospital that launched its own radio station sounds particularly fascinating. http://kontejner.org/lt22-radio-la-colifata-englis…
I’ve had a couple of nice emails about this blog in the past two weeks…… I like it when this happens as its heartening to think that people take time to read and then feel inspired to get in touch. I’m really busy finalising my MA application, applying for a few other bits and pieces and generally sorting my life out at the moment….. But as soon as all the urgent stuff is out of the way I am going to settle down and write a post I have been excited about for ages…… about some psychotic drawings of cats………
I’ve been trying to design the perfect exhibition space for this project. I’ve even put work into it (or at least artists initials). There are still a couple of others who I would like to include, but these seem to be the essentials. I am not going to write the artist’s names because that seems to be making assumptions about the fact that they would say yes!!
I need to start considering budget lines very soon. Here is my dream shopping list…
Publication- containing blog, emails, research
Library section (with books)
1 artist’s commission including flights and research fee
x2 projectors
x1 TV
Marketing – leaflet for conf & exhibition
Conference inc speakers fees & accommodation
Video camera for documentation of conference
AV technician for exhibition installation
While I am on to making lists, here also is my list of people that I would like to speak at my conference.. totally fanciful but one has to start somewhere…..
Nick Carr http://www.roughtype.com/
HB
George Khut
Lizzie Muller
Kalle Lasn and Micah White
AB
This week I got an email from Hannah Hull www.hannahhull.co.uk about an event that she is running as part of her ongoing research into Art and Mental Health. It sounds interesting…..Its called “ART vs. REHAB: A seminar to explore and provoke new relationships between art and mental health
.”
She says that ‘the purpose of the evening is to discuss potential futures for rehabilitative arts projects.’ And that she is inviting arts professionals to openly interpret the theme. I’ve drafted the following proposal as a responce… A bit different to my Masters Proposal but something I would be interested to talk about none the less. I thought that this topic would be most interesting for anyone in the audience who may be looking for positive and practical ways to use the arts and technology in mental health in their day to day working lives……..
Group Therapy: Biopsychosocial perspectives on art and new technologies.
This presentation introduces the work of artists using new technologies to promote positive mental health through bodily awareness. Articulating from a biopsychosocial perspective, I advocate that social interaction and bodily experiences are vital constituents of mental wellbeing and that crosspollination between arts and technology can help to facilitate this holistic approach to health.
My case studies will include George Khut’s projects; The Heart Library and Thinking Through the Body and Tania Fox’s Posture Enhancers. I incorporate examples of these works exhibited in venues such as hospitals, in the hope that I might inspire healthcare professionals and artists to think about practical applications in their own work.
In order to strengthen my argument, I provide a context for the relationship between technology and mental health by introducing recent thinking on the hybridization of psychotherapy and technology from publications such as the Journal of Clinical Psychology, where Michelle G Newman has claimed that “when questioned about sensitive life issues such as criminal history and suicidality, clients will disclose more substantive information to a computer than a clinician.” I hope that this argument will affirm the potential of technology to make a positive impact on the ongoing discourse around the arts and mental health.
More Info on Case Studies:
George Khut http://georgekhut.com/heartlibrary
Thinking Through the Body Project http://thinkingthroughthebody.net/blog/
Tania Fox http://www.design-interactions.rca.ac.uk/tania-fox…
Speaker Biog
Vanessa Bartlett is an artist, writer and curator based in Liverpool, UK. She is currently performance programmer at the Bluecoat. Her blog Group Therapy documents her research on the relationship between psychology, the arts and technology.
