[Words by Gemma Anderson, http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/guest-post-portraits-patients-and-psychiatrists/]
Portraits; Patients and Psychiatrists began in 2007 when the forensic psychiatrist Dr Tim McInerny saw my etchings at the Royal College of Art’s Great Exhibition. I had made a series of portraits referring to pseudo-scientific theories: comparative physiognomy, phrenology and the Doctrine of Signatures.
I was especially interested in working on portraits of psychiatric patients. My grandmother had spent a period in a psychiatric hospital in 2004. Deeply aware of how her identity was diminished by the language of medicine. I witnessed how medical vocabulary failed to express the history and story of the individual I loved and knew so well.
Tim and I decided to work together on a project creating psychiatric portraits for the 2008 arts exhibition An Experiment in Collaboration, held at Jerwood Space in London. The positive response to this encouraged us to apply for a Wellcome Trust Arts Award so we could develop the concept further.
The project began in earnest in August 2009. Before we started, Tim recruited willing psychiatrists who could identify patients enthusiastic to take part; doctor and patient needed to have a significant working relationship. Although we were based at Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham, I also made drawings at individuals’ homes in Hammersmith, Hampstead and Homerton, at a boys’ school in Brentford and at other NHS units – Kentish Town Community Mental Health Centre and the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill.
Such drawing from life requires trusting relationships with individuals and institutions, and it has been a wonderful experience of learning and discovery. Each individual led me on a search, as I wanted to draw not only the people but also the components in the portraits from life. Sometimes I used their personal possessions, but I found most of the animals, plants and other objects at the Royal College of Physicians, Kew Gardens and University College London’s Grant Museum of Zoology, Rock Room and Human Anatomy Room.
Through drawing, I have tried to represent the people involved in this project – their histories, medicines, interests and emotional worlds. The greatest privilege for me was being able to meet each person, hear their story, see their environment. Essential to this was learning about the perspective of both patient and psychiatrist, which was possible as I was granted permission to enter wards, sit in on meetings and ward rounds, and meet everyone involved first hand.
For more information about the project...
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