Flight of ideas Self-binding directives through making - Mental Health ...
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Insight
Flight of ideas
Self-binding directives through making
In November, 2019, I began a year-long dialogue with Bethlem Gallery’s mental health and justice project is funded by Wellcome. It is Lancet Psychiatry 2021
researchers Tania Gergel and Lucy Stephenson about self- an artist-led programme influencing and influenced by current research into the Published Online
law and mental health. The role of the artist and their practice is two fold; to
binding directives. My work as an artist researcher reflects situate the research by communicating its nuance and context and to make way
May 20, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1016/
on some of the issues and concepts which emerge from for underrepresented voices to inform and respond to the emerging themes. S2215-0366(21)00198-X
their investigations. In my practice, process is queen—I think
through stitching, binding, and drawing. Beth Hopkins
The next stage of the project will open a dialogue with Beth Hopkins is an artist working closely with research into advanced directives.
people with experience of bipolar disorder by making Her interest in binding as an art form, her previous experience writing her own
art collaboratively. The research will expand in new and advanced directive, and her long standing practice as an artist researcher
distinguish her as an expert in her field.
unpredictable directions; it is still living and growing.
Lucid (2020)
As I work, I tend to sit cross-legged with the sculpture cradled in my lap. I turn it as I go, stitching in a spiral. It is stuffed with a jumper given to me by a friend, strands of glitter sometimes pulling
through. ‘Identity shift big changes is who i am fixed or in flux the connectedness of self unwise decisions florid thinking interprets black as white and vice versa overrule cannot think straight in my
right mind thought derailment you are not yourself things are not as they seem to be’. Voices from the Bipolar UK survey merge in. One thought moves to the next without punctuation, a stream of
associations similar to a flight of ideas.
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Published online May 20, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00198-X 1
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Insight
Wall (2020)
My research process mapped out on a wall, so I can perceive it in one view. Sifting through ideas, I write each one on brown paper and tape it up. Identity is a neighbour to agency, capacity and insight
are close together. There are snatches from the survey of voices of people who live with bipolar disorder. A diamond of red leather, a blue cone stitched from an Ikea bag, and nets of scrim—materials I
might use. Many questions, the core one being ‘If I am not myself, who am I?’
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Published online May 20, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00198-X
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Published online May 20, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00198-X
Shears (2020)
A large pair of rusty shears, bound with strips of an old dress, a bedsheet, and string. A way to protect you from yourself—wrap you up, restrain you from harm. Muffling and making soft something sharp. The
ritual of binding is a form of care, like bandaging an injured arm to hold it in place whilst it heals.
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Scrim / Plaster / Wax (2020)
In recovery there is the fear of becoming unwell, everything speeding up beyond my control. What I can control is a piece of calico, twisting it and contorting it, tying it with string so it forms strange shapes. An experiment in
torsion—I might pour plaster over it, dip it into wax. The wax means protection, a sideways association from Ulysses anointing the ears of his men with wax so they cannot hear the sirens singing. Another term for a self-binding
directive is a “Ulysses pact”.
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Published online May 20, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00198-X
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Published online May 20, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00198-X
Identity drawing (2021)
Layers of biro ink give deep blacks. I draw out subconscious ecosystems, which twist and are in constant flux. Webs of patterns and anatomical structures, muscles, cells, and neurons. Many people in the
survey spoke clearly about a divide between their “well” and “unwell” selves. I recognised this division in my own thinking. It led to the question of whether identity is a continuous flow redirected by
mental illness, or if in bipolar disorder there is a complete disconnect between these two selves.
Insight
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