another kind of balance booklet

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Another Kind of Balance CLAIRE BARCLAY MALCOLM THOMSON GARY BURDEN DIANNA MANSON

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The history of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (REH) spans 200 years, covering many life times and diverse experiences of the psychiatric system. These experiences, some sad, some heartening, some funny and some down right odd, give a different insight into the everyday life of this hospital and the ways in which it has changed over the years.When Artlink was set the task of capturing the Hospital’s history, it decided to approach the whole project in the same way it runs its workshops. First start with the individual; learn from their experience; then see where it takes you. The artists involved in the programme became researchers, meeting with individuals, slowly unearthing stories, collating these experiences, offering newperspectives, turning their research into artworks. The result is EVER / PRESENT / PAST, a year-long programme curated andco-ordinated by Artlink, which exposes the history of the REH through events, talks and exhibitions. The year culminates in the exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery.In Another Kind of Balance, Claire Barclay’s approach was to explore the patients experience. Firstly by undertaking researchat the Lothian Health Services Archive which gave a historical insight into what it was like to be a patient in the hospital over the past two centuries. Secondly and perhaps most importantly, she collaborated with 3 people who have previously been patients at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, to determine the form of the final installation.

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Page 1: Another Kind of Balance Booklet

Another Kindof Balance

C L A I R E B A R C L A Y

M A L C O L M T H O M S O N

G A R Y B U R D E N

D I A N N A M A N S O N

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Front cover: Dianna, Malcolm and Claire during installation.

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Another Kindof Balance

C L A I R E B A R C L A Y

M A L C O L M T H O M S O N

G A R Y B U R D E N

D I A N N A M A N S O N

An exhibition realised in collaboration with The University of Edinburgh’s

Talbot Rice Gallery

Page 4: Another Kind of Balance Booklet

Ever / Present / PastThe history of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (REH) spans 200

years, covering many life times and diverse experiences of the

psychiatric system. These experiences, some sad, some heartening,

some funny and some down right odd, give a different insight

into the everyday life of this hospital and the ways in which it

has changed over the years.

When Artlink was set the task of capturing the Hospital’s

history, it decided to approach the whole project in the same way

it runs its workshops. First start with the individual; learn from

their experience; then see where it takes you. The artists involved

in the programme became researchers, meeting with individuals,

slowly unearthing stories, collating these experiences, offering new

perspectives, turning their research into artworks. The result is

EVER / PRESENT / PAST, a year-long programme curated and

co-ordinated by Artlink, which exposes the history of the REH

through events, talks and exhibitions. The year culminates in the

exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery.

In Another Kind of Balance, Claire Barclay’s approach was

to explore the patients’ experience. Firstly by undertaking research

at the Lothian Health Services Archive which gave a historical

insight into what it was like to be a patient in the hospital over

the past two centuries. Secondly and perhaps most importantly,

she collaborated with 3 people who have previously been patients

at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, to determine the form of the

final installation.

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Another Kindof Balance

Page 5: Another Kind of Balance Booklet

All four embarked on a journey of exploration, finding ways

of working together, looking for a common language which would

speak of the patients’ experience. A journey which as Manson states,

‘Is not about difference, labels or hierarchies but about finding

equality within a shared experience’.

Alison Stirling and Trevor Cromie

Co-curators EVER / PRESENT / PAST

Thanks to: Artlink Director, Jan-Bert van den Berg, for his invaluable

support and guidance throughout the project.

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A Shared LanguageClaire Barclay is describing a padded room designed by Thomas

Clouston, the Royal Edinburgh’s eminent Victorian superintendent

– ‘The room was lined with layers of felt, but was to have leather

stretched over it, which would be stenciled and varnished so that it

would look unthreatening and domestic, like an old library, he said.’

It is an example of the kind of imaginative solution that seemed a

hallmark of Clouston’s time at what was then the Royal Edinburgh

Asylum, and the importance he placed on the physical environment

of care. It is also striking that in devising the room, Clouston was

visualising the world from a patient’s viewpoint.

We are talking some weeks before the exhibition Another Kind

of Balance opens; an installation which will be a complex interplay

of elements made by Barclay with work created at the Royal

Edinburgh by Gary Burden and Malcolm Thomson, and informed

by the memories of former patient Dianna Manson. It draws on

the physical environment of the contemporary hospital and also

on its rich history.

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Gary and Claire at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital

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‘Hopefully it will be difficult to tell which parts I have made and

which have been made by Gary or Malcolm,’ says Barclay. Original

sculptural forms made by Burden and painterly images by Thomson

are incorporated within the larger installation, together with objects

that Barclay has made in response to their designs. The whole is a

culmination of Barclay opening her work to the influence of these

three others as embodied in their artwork and, in Manson’s case,

her recollections of the physical environment of Craig House,

the coldness of the metal bedframes, the warmth of wood panelling.

As Barclay explains, ‘It’s about trying to understand a context

through people’s individual experience. I hope this is the right

way to approach this project.’

Large cage-like structures sit on diminutive wheels and act as a

support for cloth bags and pillow forms made from striking printed

fabric and compelling tightly bound objects made from a range of

commonplace materials. Other wooden structures incorporate parts

held under pressure, which relate tangentially to certain interior

elements of Craig House.

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Ward in Jordanburn Nerve Hospital

Malcolm at the Glasshouses

© S

cran

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The metal structures suggest trolleys – the mundane but vital

circulation system of the spread-out hospital – delivering and

collecting food and drugs, laundry, refuse. Barclay describes the

work as ‘lo-tech and contemporary’ in contrast to the Georgian

finery of the surrounding gallery space.

The contrasting materials and forms set up a kind of tension

and anxiety, but as Barclay acknowledges, ‘I don’t think it would be

appropriate to make something purely celebratory. The experience

of mental illness and being in hospital is obviously not a happy one,

although there can be moments of joy. There has to be a kind of

darkness in this work, alongside a sense of hope expressed within

forms of creativity and communication.’

And Barclay’s experience of working one-to-one with her

collaborators has been a positive one. She has worked as an artist

with Artlink at the hospital for two years, so has experience of

working with many different people, mostly in workshop settings.

For this project, however, she worked intensively with two

individuals who had a particular interest in painting and making.

She describes how when Gary Burden moved from drawing to

making sculptural forms, the work immediately became abstract

and daring.

‘It’s been really exciting to observe someone working so closely

that you actually know what they are going to do next, and that

they are totally happy with you being involved with their process

of making. What seems so important is to feel that you are on some

kind of equal level with the person that you’re working with, that

you are listening to each other through a specific artistic approach,

and actually finding a new language by which to communicate.’

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Malcolm Thomson also works with abstract imagery, his passion

for paint and colour resulting in compositions of bright hand-painted

forms which attempt a geometrical perfection, or layered, gestural

finger paintings, intense and concentrated.

Barclay sees the engagement of artists with patients in the

hospital as providing a kind of alternative care to that received from

health professionals. ‘It isn’t about nurturing someone medically,

but is about inspiring them, catching their curiosity with an

unconventional approach, provoking something that speaks

to the individual.’

This kind of activity can be transformative and deeply satisfying

for participants, but is often not appreciated as such by a mental

health service currently focused on work-related rather than creative

opportunities.

In preparation for this exhibition, Barclay spent time going

through parts of the massive archive material at Lothian Health

Services Archive, including patient’s letters and drawings, such as

the extraordinary work of Andrew Kennedy, and accounts of earlier

regimes at the hospital. She found that, despite received notions of

the grimness of Victorian asylums, there were aspects of liberality

and playfulness. The archives provide accounts of patients staying

out on the curling rink until 3am, or of grand picnics to the nearby

hills that ended with the patients carrying the doctors around at

shoulder height.

Gary working at The Royal Edinburgh Hospital

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REH basket weaving, occupational therapy in the 1950’s

There was a notable emphasis on activity and occupation

for patients, right up until the mid-20th century. To some extent,

such activities became formalised through the new specialism of

Occupational Therapy, and the increasing use of drug therapies

meant less emphasis on sport and physical activity as a way of

calming excitation. Patients used to be involved with various aspects

of the hospital’s running – from working in the laundry to animal

husbandry. However, complaints arose in local newspapers in the

1950s that patients were being exploited, after some were seen

pulling a plough.

© S

cran

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This issue of exploitation has been a vexed question ever

since. For many, working with animals and in the kitchens or

carpentry workshops would be both satisfying and useful.

However, occupations such as stuffing envelopes or putting strings

on labels were indeed frustrating and boring for many. This all

points to the importance of responding to the particular needs and

talents of the individual, to provide activity tailored to that person.

Barclay does not differentiate between the kind of work made

by often untutored individuals in this setting and the practices

of professional artists. ‘I see it as a shared language, because

contemporary artists naturally do the same kind of formal things

within their work, like binding materials together, or using

overwriting, layering, fragmenting things, repetition – all these

modes of expression that are familiar to us. Working with Gary

especially made me feel confident that we’re all tapping into

something innately human.’

In his book, ‘Going Sane’ psychoanalyst Adam Phillips explores

ideas of the ‘normality’ of different mental states, and cites the view

of some influential theorists that it is ‘Good to be sane as a mother,

but not good to be sane as an artist.’1 Sidestepping the clichés

of artistic derangement, Barclay notes a more prosaic connection

between the circumstances of artistic production and of mental

illness, and that is vulnerability. ‘Mental illness is an unmasking,

an unveiling. You are exposed by it. Artists are also exposed,

through the making and presentation of their work.’

1 ‘Going Sane’, Adam Phillips, Hamish Hamilton, 2005

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Throughout the making and presentation of this particular

work, the idea of care, and what constitutes care, has been a

central concern. Barclay describes inspiring interactions she has

witnessed between nurses and patients or how she has been affected

by the way patients look out for each other, despite their difficult

individual circumstances. In the realisation of this installation we

can understand care as something not only given by one person

to another, but of something that can be jointly embarked upon

through a shared language of making.

Dianna Manson

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Drawing by Dianna Manson

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Special thanks to:

Staff and patients of the Royal Edinburgh HospitalMeadows WardOrchard ClinicWard 16North WingCommiston WardEden WardArtlink Glasshouses workshop participantsAnne ElliotLaura SpringJames McLardyBar Knight LtdCentre for Advanced Textiles, Glasgow School of ArtLothian Health Services Archive staffUniversity of Edinburgh’s Talbot Rice Gallery Install Team

ANOTHER K IND OF BALANCE 25

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Credits

Catalogue published by Artlink in an edition of 1,000, November 2013. Catalogue published to accompany the following exhibition.

Another Kind of Balance, Claire Barclay, Malcolm Thomson, Gary Burden, Dianna Manson, University of Edinburgh’s

Talbot Rice Gallery.

16th November 2013 to 15th February 2014.

© Copyright 2013 the artist, authors and publisher.

The Ever / Present / Past project has been co-curated by Trevor Cromie and Artlink’s Projects Director Alison Stirling, the exhibition has been realised in collaboration with the Talbot Rice Gallery.

Design by Nicky Regan, Submarine Design.Essay by Nicola White.Edited by Alison Stirling and Trevor Cromie.Ever/Present/Past logo designed by Vic MacRae.

Page 7 & 10 images: © Scran.

Install photo pages 16 to 24 by Ruth Clark. All other photos Anne Elliot, Trevor Cromie and Claire Barclay.

Artlink promotes diversity, drawing on lived experiences to inform creative responses which are both relevant and enduring.

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Artlink Edinburgh and the Lothians13a Spittal StreetEdinburghEH3 9DY Tel: 0131 229 3555Website: www.artlinkedinburgh.co.ukBlog: www.artlinkeverpresentpast.wordpress.com Artlink is a company registered in Scotland No. 87845 with charitable status. Scottish Charity No. SC006845.