Image above from previous Daily Life Ltd lightbox exhibition in Dalston.
What: Letting in the Light: an exhibition of powerful, affecting and exuberant work to light up our lives
When: 25 January – 24 March 2016
Where: Centre of Stratford
Mental Spaghetti is really excited that three of our favourite comrades – Daily Life Ltd, Outside In, Bethlem Gallery – have teamed up to bring you this new exhibition. Extra excited in fact, that two artists we’re exhibiting at the Menier Gallery next week (info here ) are also featured in the lightbox exhibition. Read on…
Outside In is proud to have worked on this exhibition in collaboration with Daily Life Ltd and Bethlem Gallery to showcase high-quality work by thirty-five artists on the subject of how art can illuminate our understanding of the experience of mental distress. Featuring work by artists with personal experience of mental health issues, the group exhibition is made up of works selected through an open call process.
The exhibition title is a reference to Groucho Marx’ line: ‘Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.’ Artist and Daily Life Ltd’s Artistic Director Bobby Baker says: “I was judged and underestimated when I had mental health problems, but when people see my autobiographical drawings it helps change the way they think about mental health. Artists like us, with unique experiences, can create work that enlightens and delights people.”
The hope is that the works, displayed in illuminated lightboxes, will lighten up the lives of passersby in Stratford during the dark, damp winter months with wit, beauty, insight and artistry.
Above, work by Bobby Baker (l) and Phil Baird (r).
Artists
Bobby Baker, Jan Arden, Liz Atkin, Phil Baird, Stephanie Bates, Jackie Bennet, Anna Berry, Greg Bromley, Lea Cummings, Kim F, Chris Gray, Lesley Greening Lassoff, Greenwoodflett, Nuala Hamilton, George Harding, Manuela Hubner, John Jennings, Jane McCormick, Tilley Milburn, Sue Morgan, Graeme Newton, Julia Oak, Helen Parker, Yvonne Mary Parker, Martin Phillimore, Daniel Regan, Sara Rivers, Kate Rolison, Dolly Sen, Tess Springall, Jasmine Surreal, Sue Trickey, Kristina Veasey, Terence Wilde, Anthony Woods-McLean.
Bobby Baker
Bobby Baker is a woman and an artist acclaimed for producing radical work of outstanding quality across disciplines including performance, drawing and multi media. In a career spanning four decades she has, amongst other things, danced with meringue ladies; made a life-sized version of her family out of cake; and driven around the streets of London strapped to the back of a truck yelling at passers by through a megaphone to ‘Pull Yourselves Together.’
Baker’s touring exhibition Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me 1997-2008 premiered at the Wellcome Collection in 2009. The accompanying book of the same name won the Mind Book of the Year 2011. Her most recent show, Mad Gyms & Kitchens, was commissioned as part of London 2012 Unlimited for the Cultural Olympiad.
Daily Life Ltd
We believe that people with personal experience of mental health problems should be valued for their strengths, insight and creativity and that when they are, everyone benefits.
Our mission is to create powerful art and platforms that change the way people think about mental health. We work to transform how people see themselves and each other, and to stimulate dialogue that builds bridges of connection and understanding. As a disabled artist led organisation, our work is founded on the knowledge that people with personal experience of mental distress are uniquely able, as ‘experts by experience,’ to make exceptional new art and provoke new ways of seeing.
http://www.dailylifeltd.co.uk
Outside In
Outside In, founded by Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, in 2006, provides a platform for artists who see themselves as facing barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation. The goal of the project is to create a fairer art world which rejects traditional values and institutional judgments about whose work can and should be displayed.
Bethlem Gallery
The Bethlem Gallery provides a professional platform for artists who are current or former patients of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Exhibitions and events are programmed throughout the year presenting a wide range of media and contemporary practice. We campaign for access to the arts in healthcare environments, and engage audiences in learning and debate on the subject of mental health. The Bethlem Gallery is funded by the Maudsley Charity.
