Muriel Gallan: Positive images of old age

Muriel Gallan, Photo journalist

 

http://www.murielgallan.co.uk/#/commissions/4572190500

 

Commision for Swansea Singleton Hospital care of the eldely ward. Photos of older people enjoying an active life. To highlight that aging and medical conditions do not have to stop patients enjoying activities that they enjoy.

 

Elderly care consultant Wyn Harris, who thought up the idea, said: "It is recognised there is an important crossover between the arts and medicine which is mutually beneficial.

"With regards to the pictures on elderly care wards, I think they are important for a number of reasons. They enliven and add interest to the ward environment.

''However, more import- antly, they remind patients, staff and visitors that being elderly is not just about illness and frailty — many elderly people have active and rewarding lives.

"It also helps us to see inpatients' illness episodes in the context of their life outside hospital."

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Student-Muriel-Gallan-brightens-elderly-care-ward/story-18502262-detail/story.html#ixzz2PlleLZ3O

Jake Lever

The blue, the dim and the gold

 

 

 

I first saw this piece at Medicine Unboxed 2012. It is a beautiful representation of the journey that Jake made with his dad who had a terminal illness.

 

"I approach my practice as a contemplative activity. My images are often derived from fragments of medieval paintings, frescoes and icons. Recently the hand has provided a focus for my work, a framework for the exploration of frailty, vulnerability and the presence of the divine"
 

 

 

 

 

JAKE LEVER believes that the arts can be an aid to recovery and the ongoing wellbeing of a person. He will be debuting his huge and stunning piece, the Blue and the Dim and the Gold. As tiny, fragile vessels, adrift in a half-light world, Jake helps us navigate the ‘dark night of the soul’, buoyed by the belief that there is a shimmering beauty to be discovered in the darkness

Stories from the day hospice

http://wellcomecollection.wordpress.com/category/stories-from-the-day-hospice/

Throughout the summer of 2012, Wellcome Trust Senior Editor Chrissie Giles spent time at the day hospice at Princess Alice Hospice, Esher, running a creative writing group. In a series of posts for the Wellcome Collection blog accompanying Death: A self-portrait, she reflected on her experiences there and showcased some of the writing produced by group members. These stories have now been gathered together as a single publication, and illustrated by Marianne Dear.

Sketches for Fragile Narratives, 2011

For my fragile narratives piece, I spent time in residential homes and with users of Age UK Day services in Cheltenham sketching people whilst they told me anecdotes from their past.

I really enjoyed this process, some of the stories, such as the lady who worked on the Enigma project in Bletchley park during the second world war, and the man who was an engineer who designed aeroplanes, were absolutely fascinating and unexpected.

Below are some of the sketches produced. 



Gemma Anderson

[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...

http://gemmaanderson.wordpress.com/

Artist Statement for Medicine Unboxed 2012

I am interested in the concept of ‘the origin of belief’. How are beliefs formed? Are our beliefs individual to us, or influenced by social and cultural factors surrounding us?

 

 

I read that “belief is a mental architecture of how we interpret the world”.

This made me think of formal structures, the organisation of cells that make up the intricate civilisation of tissues which house our thoughts. Although the brain of the doctor would look identical to that of the patient under the microscope, what is it that causes us to adopt different belief systems and thought processes? We all share the same neuroanatomy, but no two minds are identical.

 

Historical references have been documented concerning the discoveries that neuroscientists have made, connecting the hard-wired organisational structure of the brain with the intangible beliefs that we humans hold. For hundreds of years, there have been documented cases of people who have physically damaged their brain through illness or trauma, which has resulted altered behaviour, and possessing very specific delusions, beliefs held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary. This anecdotal evidence is now being confirmed with the development of science and technology. A method of taking pictures of the human brain working, known as functional neuroimaging, shows us the brain lighting up like a Christmas tree when the subject is experiencing different emotions, allowing us to actually see wherein the brain these intangible thoughts originate from within this organ.

“Beliefs are mental objects, in the sense that they are embedded in the brain”.

I wanted to work with this idea of functional imaging, representing the origins of belief. I based the images on real MRI scans that I am used to seeing everyday in a professional capacity, using images of the brain where it had been ‘cut’ into interesting sections which are not easily recognisable. The hard, cold, science of anatomy and pathology, have been contrasted with ancient techniques and muted colours to produce the ethereal quality of the images of the mind in action. The canvases are layered with gesso to incorporate texture. The palette is calm and neutral, reminding me of the transient nature of dust; how our delicate and fragile beliefs could fade with time.

Conference 19-20th September 2013. Malady and Mortality: Illness, Disease and Death literary and visual culture conference

Keynote Speakers: Professor Tony Walter, Centre for Death, University of Bath; Professor Alan Bleakley, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry
Papers are invited on the following topics:

• Health, Well Being and Environment
• History of Medicine
• Public Health and Medicine
• Disease and Subjectivity
• Disability and Agency
• The Body in Pain
• Palliative Care
• Illness and Digital Technologies
• Narrative, e-Narratives and Memory
• Medical Intervention and Patient Testimony
• Communication and Patient Networks
• Medical Identities and Medical Gatekeepers
• Sustainability, Quality of Life and Euthanasia
• State Intervention and Legal Decisions
• Artes Moriendi and Privacy Definitions of Death
• Rights and Ownership
• Grief and Mourning

Please send abstracts (200 words max) to Dr Helen Thomas, with subject header ‘Malady and Mortality Conference’ by 1st May 2013.

Paintings in Hospitals

Paintings in Hospitals website

I stumbled upon this website today, love it.

"Paintings in Hospitals is a registered charity that uses art and creativity to reduce sickness, anxiety and stress in UK healthcare facilities. Through our work we create environments that improve health, wellbeing and the healthcare experience for patients, their families and staff."

The belief that fuels the work of this charity is art promotes healing. This claim was acknowledged in the Department of Health and Arts Council England publication, 2007: A prospectus for arts and health (an interesting, if not long, read!).

As well as their hospital art loan scheme, they also organise artist residencies into hospitals...need to learn more about this, sounds fun!