Malcolm Learmonth's pictures. Pic © BATT
Exhibition Preview: A Healing Mind - Art Therapy and the Body, Together Our Space Gallery, London, February 5-27 2009
“My mind was full of playing Shakespeare, Hamlet, Elsinore, drains and corruption,” writes Sue, one of the contributors to Our Space’s The Healing Mind exhibition, comparing the emotional dishonesty of her estranged husband to the rotten core of Shakespeare’s Denmark.
“I felt excluded from my old house, where my ex-spouse was living with his new woman, an old friend of mine. I felt it was time to draw the line and define the barriers.”
Untitled was made by a muscular distrophy sufferer who died at the age of 14. Pic © BATT
An exhibition of works created as part of art therapy sessions, The Healing Mind reveals several pieces which make no secret of the troubled mindsets and testing lives they reflect.
An image of a wheelchair-bound man sinking in sand reflects the despair of terminal illness, while atmospheric, panoramic landscapes under dark clouds capture the struggle of coping with bereavement and angry slews of blood-red paint channel the frustrations of physical impairment.
Inner Life of the Heart. Pic © BATT
But the moving collection also reveals works of beauty from artists using creativity as a release, dotting hope amongst outright fury and bitterness – a seascape picture illustrates sailing waves of emotion, and portraits, mountains and rainbows shimmer with colour.
Our Mutual Friend. Pic © BATT
“Managing uncertainties at a time of shock often defies our verbal language and makes it hard to put feelings into words,” observes Val Huet, of co-organisers the British Association of Art Therapists.
“Art therapy provides a valuable source of emotional support for people with a wide range of conditions caused by physical illnesses or trauma. The growing body of evidence shows that art is uniquely placed to provide a much-needed holistic element in the care of physical conditions and to help people regain a sense of wellbeing.”
Pieces from Debbie Michaels present her work with an elderly woman who had suffered a stroke. Pic © BATT
In one of four exhibits provided by Jo Bissonnet, a BAAT Art Therapist in Norfolk, a young man suffering from muscular symphony has drawn two teenagers embracing. He died at the age of 14, and his mother has given permission for his work to be shown in an effort to encourage art therapy as a form of psychological help.
“The Together Our Space gallery was established at our National Office in 2006 so that people with experience of mental ill-health and psychological trauma would have a place where their work and experiences could be shared with a wide audience,” says John McKelvie, Director of Operations at mental health charity Together: Working for Wellbeing.
Sailing to Philadelphia. Pic © BATT
“The Healing Mind exhibition gives the people directly affected the opportunity to do just that, and we are grateful to these people and their families for sharing their work with us so that others might better understand.”
Open Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm. Entrance is free. Together Our Space Gallery, 12 Old Street, London, EC1V 9BE
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