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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.
Citation preview
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
Front cover: Dianna, Malcolm and Claire during installation.
ANOTHER K IND OF BALANCE 3
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
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.
4 ANOTHER K IND OF BALANCE
Another Kindof Balance
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.
ANOTHER K IND OF BALANCE 5
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
‘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.
ANOTHER K IND OF BALANCE 7
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.’
ANOTHER K IND OF BALANCE 9
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
10 ANOTHER K IND OF BALANCE
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
ANOTHER K IND OF BALANCE 11
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
12 ANOTHER K IND OF BALANCE
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
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.