See Us/Hear Us

I’ve left it a couple of days before writing about our See Us/Hear Us exhibition for the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.  After the event I was too keyed up, still too excited by it to make much sense of my thoughts.  The next day I was back on ‘duty’ (it’s not a duty, it’s an absolute pleasure), taking the Photography & Wellbeing Group from Jean’s Bothy to the local woods for an autumnal themed photo walk.  The hot topic of conversation was the exhibition and performances from the previous night, and no wonder because it had been a triumph! 

It seems as if it has all happened in a big rush towards the night itself, but the fact is, this has been in the planning, one way or another, since early summer.  A trip with Katrina Sayer in May to scout out Cove Park, the artists’ retreat about half an hour away from here was initially to see if it could be a potential location for a photo walk, or perhaps where we might have our next Bothy On Location Day.  The staff there were so welcoming and full of inspiration that on the ride home our thoughts turned to all sorts of other exciting possibilities, including how perhaps we could take part in SMHAF 2023.  There was talk of chemigrams and workshops and an exhibition of revolutionary posters made from materials foraged from the Cove site, of involving other mental health and wellbeing organisations from around Scotland too.

 Sometimes I get a bit too ambitious though and while I’ve not given up on the chemigrams idea entirely, we realised that it might be better to start smaller and use the opportunity provided by the SMHAF to involve several of our own Bothy Groups so that we could include as many members as possible. All those interested were asked to get together to organise our response and then suddenly it seemed that plans were properly afoot with ideas and suggestions coming in thick and fast.

 In the meantime, we made a return visit to Cove Park, this time with the Photography & Wellbeing Group and several other Bothy members who were interested to find out more about the place.  After a picnic lunch outside, overlooking Loch Long on a gloriously sunny day, some went for a guided tour of the facilities.  I elected to remain behind in the enveloping peace of the Jacob’s building to gather my thoughts and come up with my own responses to the idea of Revolution, the theme for this year’s SMHAF.

 One of our first questions was where to have our proposed event.  Cove Park had been the inspirational jumping off point I suppose for the whole project but as a lot of our discussions on revolution had been based on ideas of accessibility, and because we didn’t want to overstretch ourselves on this, our first venture of this kind, we decided that a venue in Helensburgh itself would be preferable on this occasion. 

 I had been due to have work exhibited at the Scottish Submarine Centre pre-covid but a series of disasters, (and Covid was only one of them) has meant this is yet to happen, but it did occur to me once we had some funding in place, we could perhaps have our Bothy event there.  I’d seen my images projected onto the huge walls of the main display room before and knew how much impact such a projection could have.  Bothy members visited and had a good look round, thinking about what we hoped to do there and how it might all work.  We were treated to an unseasonal children’s Christmas display to get an idea of what our projection might look like, and we discussed having a staged area for vocal performances of songs, poetry and prose and using the space under the submarine that hung from the ceiling as focal point for all the amazing art produced in Janet’s painting class. 

Once Katrina had successfully acquired funding through the Scottish Recovery Network, we knew we could now afford refreshments for our guests – very important to keep your audience well fed!  We could also add to the input from the Creative Writing Group by having their second book, ably organised by facilitator Ann Greer, printed for sale.  Revolution is a brilliant compilation of work by members and as well as song lyrics, poems and pieces of reflective writing and short stories, it also includes photographs and illustrations, which rather reflects life at the Bothy as there is often a lot of crossover between groups.  This event was going to give so many people the chance to have their say - what better than having a range of mediums in which to get your point across?

 And so we had our event.  It was, genuinely, brilliant!  The fact that it had been on my mind for months, melted away as I took in all the happy faces appreciating our efforts (It wasn’t always plain sailing but by dint of keeping going and never giving up, we did it!)  We had an impressively immersive photographic display projected over all four vast walls for the digital photography, easels and boards laden with beautiful painted artworks, a staging area for performance of songs, poetry and prose, a table groaning with an absolute feast of healthy goodies and a book stall.  Everyone I spoke to said that they were moved and impressed by the scale and the content of what we’d all done.  It was a lovely feeling and I for one have been riding high on that feeling all weekend.

So now it’s Sunday and I’ve stopped to think what I felt the impact of that event might be.  The theme for the SMHAF this year was Revolution and we’d all spent quite some time turning that idea round (sorry) to see how we felt about it, how it applied to us, what we thought it should mean and how we might represent that.  In the end I think what we each did was offer up our own individual interpretations, but perhaps because we are all involved in the same community, it was as if we were saying it all in one voice.  We felt scared at times by the idea of revolution.  We recognised though that some things desperately need to change. 

My own project was prompted by information in a report (https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/policy-and-advocacy/mental-health-and-cost-of-living-crisis-report) which said that the Cost of Living Crisis was going to leave us with a Mental Health Crisis at least as severe as the one caused by the pandemic.  As I read this, the phrase Buy One Get One Free popped into my head and suddenly, the supermarket, Revolution (tag line: You Can’t Afford Not To) was born.  I’ve created a series of images featuring products which represent the basic things we need to thrive as humans – food, shelter, warmth, company, sleep, intellectual stimulus, access to greenspace, access to healthcare, transport and so on, as well as some to represent what ails us – sadness, loneliness, anxiety.  Using the visual language of a budget supermarket, borrowing colours regularly used in revolutionary propaganda, even having a small nod to the Industrial Revolution in the supermarket logo, I’ve created a brand which only serves to remind us that we are being screwed over.  You can’t have all the things in your basket because the cost of living means you can’t afford them.  What will you put back?  Heat?  A social life?  Your sense of wellbeing is now a luxury item.  Cheap packets of social anxiety and sadness are available nationwide, but a good night’s sleep has only limited availability.  When you buy a can of Cost-of-Living Crisis, you get a can of Mental Health Crisis free.  I was angry when I was making this work, and it takes a lot to make me angry.  I even wrote about that for one of my pieces in our book.  But it shouldn’t be that public transport services are so poor that anyone with a hospital appointment needs to take several hours out of their day if they don’t have a car.  If you are unlucky enough be employed on a zero-hours contract you’re not getting paid for that time – so you’re even worse off by next pay day and the chances you’ll have money for a life enhancing concert ticket or a train ride to somewhere with amazing scenery and fresh air are nil.  The cycle of poverty and associated mental health issues continues.

Our exhibition and performances gave us an opportunity to say all these things and more.  People came and listened.  It took bravery to pick up a guitar and sing a self-penned song to a crowd.  It took guts to read poetry about mental health issues.  It is no less nerve wracking to display your artwork on easels or your photographs on a museum wall… you’re asking people to look at what you’ve done, to judge it and all you can do is hope that they like it, or better yet, understand it. 

 For a while this afternoon I worried that it wasn’t enough.  It’s probably true that our audience was full of what might be termed ‘the converted’.  We weren’t delivering our message to an antagonistic crowd. These wonderful people who came to see our work were by and large supporters: family, friends, fellow members, people who work in mental health and wellbeing services.  While it was a terrific effort on our part, we can’t stop here.  We all regularly experience negative comments in language that is upsetting around mental health struggles, when it’s dismissed as being too sensitive, not having enough backbone.  ‘Every second person is anxious now!’ I heard recently.  So, the work we put into this event has been important.  It has given us a sense of achievement, of being part of a community, it has challenged us, and we have experienced joy and self-worth which is all fantastic.  However, we must continue to work and create together so that some of us can start or continue to experience revolution in the changes that this brings for us as individuals.  We must continue to be brave and take the lessons we have learned elsewhere; to speak with entities who might have the power to change things for everyone.  We’re like a wheel with the Bothy at the hub, the members and our activities as spokes radiating outwards, working in harmony to effect change and movement.  So yes.  There’s still more to do.  But our contribution to this year’s Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival was absolutely enough – frankly, it was revolutionary.