While the Library is temporarily closed you can enjoy the full online version of this exhibition by clicking here.
Friday 17 January 2020 - Tuesday 14 April 2020
Fifty artists. Fifty minds. Fifty artworks in paint, film, drawing, sculpture and print.
The vocabulary we use to describe mental and emotional experience is changing. With attitudes shifting towards compassion in policy and treatment, terms such as wellbeing, recovery and mental health are being re-examined, and their connotations questioned. Words like neurodiversity have emerged to describe the world of mind and brain/thought and feeling in a less stigmatising way – but studying the neurological is just one part of developing our understanding. Societies are responsible for distress and disability, and our behaviours between each other shape our lives.
The standard guide for most psychologists, psychiatrists and services remains the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’ – first published in 1952. In the exhibition ‘Talking Sense’, fifty artworks, are paired with fifty phrases created by jumbling the contents of this textbook’s most recent edition, whose terminology and methodology have been criticised by professionals and survivors of harmful treatments. By reorganising this language and juxtaposing it with eclectic artworks we hope to open up a space for helpful conversations around the future of care.
With Ahmed Mohammed ◦ Akinyemi Oludele ◦ Alyson Olson ◦ Amelia Phythian ◦ Amy Ellison ◦ Andee Collard ◦ Bethany Costerd ◦ Carlo Keshishian ◦ Chan-yang Kim ◦ Danielle Dalton ◦ Darren Adcock ◦ Darren Nixon with Steve Iles ◦ Dolly Sen ◦ Freya Goodwin ◦ Gwen Evans ◦ Hanaa Cara ◦ Hondartza Fraga ◦ Horace Lindezey ◦ Jackie Bennett ◦ Joan Sugrue ◦ Jules Clarke ◦ Juliette Goddard ◦ Kaori Miyachi Sogabe ◦ Kath Lowe ◦ Kay Shah ◦ Kirsty E Smith ◦ Lauren Steeper ◦ Li Ya Wen ◦ Linda Hemmersbach ◦ Louisa Hammond ◦ Malik Jama ◦ Maud Haya-Baviera ◦ Maureen Callaghan ◦ Naty Lopez-Holguin ◦ Nina Chua ◦ Norman Anderson ◦ Olivia Morgan ◦ Quinza Ashraf ◦ Pascal Nichols ◦ Paul Dodgson ◦ Philip Kennedy ◦ Robbie Fife ◦ Sam Douglas ◦ Sarah Kasumi with Alice Hanako ◦ Sally Hirst ◦ Sippy Cup ◦ Sonja Zelic ◦ Stewart Kelly ◦ Thomas Mendonça ◦ Victoria Lucas
Related events at The Portico Library:
Supported by the Zochonis Charitable Trust
Have a look at local arts charity Pool Arts’ interactive digital timeline which commemorates significant milestones in the history of mental health acts and events, from 1498 onwards.