Research Symposium: ART & JUSTICE Bethlem Gallery

Since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, there has been the opportunity to attend all manner of exciting events from the comfort of your own home, without travelling and being out there in the real world. I like this. I have got used to Zoom and Teams and video conferences is now part of my everyday life.

This week I was able to attend an Art & Justice Research Symposium, still do some mum things and have lunch downstairs. I have never been to Bethlem Gallery and I have never met the artists who presented their work, but there they were on my screen and I was able to use the chat feature to talk to them directly and ask questions. I seriously think that is a wonderful thing and it just feels like more of a connection. 

Yellow O'clock - Portraits of my Diagnosis - 1st August 2017

Bethlem Gallery and Museum of the Mind are situated on the site of Bethlem Royal Hospital which is a psychiatric hospital with an extensive history, has an important part to play in mad studies and my PhD research. It comes under the South London and Maudslay NHS Foundation Trust who diagnosed me as autistic and ADHD in the summer of 2017. As autism did not exist as a diagnosable condition until 1943 and St Mary's of Bethlehem (shortened to Bethlem and sometimes referred to as Bedlam) was founded as a religious order in the 13th Century, it is very likely that many autistic people have been amongst those considered "mad" and deserving of a place in the asylum. Society has treated people with mental health conditions very poorly in the past and there are still plenty of discriminatory practices that occur. There are however some extremely vulnerable people in our society today that face intolerable injustices at the hands of those who are supposed to care for them and this symposium highlighted some of their suffering.  

The symposium was part of the 5 year multi-disciplinary research initiative, Mental Health and Justice Project, the aims of which are to protect the vulnerable people in our society and respect their autonomy and agency. The promotion of autonomy and agency is a research aim of my PhD research so I have plenty to read and learn from this project.

One of the other significant changes to society as a result of the pandemic, was a much greater awareness of the social inequalities and racism that BICOP communities face around the world as a result of the murder of George Floyd by police on 25th May 2020. Activism in support of Black Lives Matter made this a global issue that could no longer be ignored.

Mini Protest Banner - Black Lives Matter - Canterbury Cathedral, June 2020

I placed my own mini protest banner outside of Canterbury Cathedral on the day of one of the many protest marches that took place and called the Archbishop of Canterbury and MP for Canterbury Rosie Duffield to action.

Art as a means of protest is powerful. Two of the artists at the symposium Mark Titchner and Jade Monserrat spoke of their work in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement. 

In June 2020, Mark had an installation placed around the boarders of Bethlem Hospital, Some Questions About Us, which was graffitied shortly after the death of George Floyd, as commentary about the death of Olaseni Lewis. He was  a 23-year old black man who died after being restrained by the police at the hospital in 2010. This led to the making of the documentary, RIP SENI directed by Daisy Ifama.

Click here for a link to Mark's website and more information about Some Questions About Us, the original public art work.

Jade Monserrat shared the story of another death, that of Sarah Reed, who died in Holloway Prison. Jade produced a risograph for Transport for London in memory of Sarah in 2018.

  Jade Montserrat, 'In memory of Sarah Reed', 2018. Risograph print for Art on the Underground. 

The final artist to present at the symposium was Dolly Sen, whose sense of humour expressed through her art is something that I can relate to as this is the way that I tend to approach subjects that are difficult... although I do tend to go a bit heavy on the satire sometimes. I particularly like Dolly's Mr Men do Psychiatry  . My favourite is Mr Discharged from Services for Smiling Once. Anyone who has had to engage with ADHD services will be able to relate to this one. I secretly suspect that there is a sweepstake going on who they can discharge from services the fastest and that the set up is designed to make ADHD people feel successful for racking up record scores. 

Dolly's has also  Sectioned the 'DWP'  and her latest work commissioned for the current research exhibition at Bethlem Gallery, is a giant listening ear. I was struck by Dolly's intention to listen to the stories but never to author them which is something that I am going to take away with me from the symposium. In my own research into the impact of craft om mental health , I want to create opportunities for people to tell their stories but I don't ever want to turn them into 'a story about their story'. That will be my challenge, how do I write a thesis that doesn't try to make other people's life fit my narrative?  I hope to go to the exhibition and perhaps whisper these research dilemmas into the listening ear and maybe somewhere within the walls of Bethlem, I will find some answers. 

Thank you to everyone who was part of the symposium, for making it such an inspiring and thought provoking day. I don't really do it justice with these notes because these are lives and the struggles of people who have reached the point of crisis, however I do have lived experience and will try to use my knowledge to support change. 

A dragon is auditioning for gone with the wind - Portraits of support inspired by the Research Symposium: ART & JUSTICE Bethlem Gallery - 25th September 2021