Out of Sight Out of Mind exhibition

This blog mainly serves as a record of things I have written. At times it can feel like that record is just for me but even if that is the case this blog is still serving a purpose of some kind so I keep at it. Plus a blog is a lot easier to manage than all the boxes and books and piles of paper that other writing involves (though, obviously, I still have lots of those too…). Today’s post, however, is less about writing and more about pictures as the thing I am recording here is that some artwork I did in 2020 will be part of the Out of Sight Out of Mind exhibition this month at Summerhall in Edinburgh. The artwork is being displayed in a record box (suitably enough, see above). There are full exhibition details at the end of the post. As of 19th October you can see it all online (here).

 

This is the tenth year there has been an Out of Sight Out of Mind event in Edinburgh and, according to its website, this exhibition: “presents artworks made by people, and it is organised by people, who have lived experience of mental health issues”. You can read this article in The Scotsman about the exhibition too. I’d never heard of it before this year (I don’t get to Edinburgh that often) but when I saw the call for submissions it kind of called out to me. I had been wondering what to do with the visual art I made for the Fun A Day Dundee (FADD)* project in January 2020 and this seemed a possible place for it. I had put a bit of work, money and time into getting that work ready for the FADD 2020 exhibition but the event ended up online due to Covid. I came up with other plans for the online show in 2020 (like this video) but I really wanted the physical pieces I’d prepared to do something other than just sit in a cupboard.

 

Some of you may remember it from 2020 but this work is made up of 31 illustrated words – each one about the size of a 7-inch single – and the words also make up a poem (a little piece about making art, being involved, keeping yourself going – a few simple words with some big ambitions). I have made copies of the poem for the exhibition too. The poem had to be 31 words (with no repeated words) and I wrote it at the end of December 2019.

Each word’s illustration relates to songs or artists that feature the word in question (and there’s a full list of all those music references online here and in the back of the record box in the exhibition). I had the illustrations ready to go up on a wall in 2020 (the way you’d see record sleeves up on a record shop wall) but that takes a lot of space so for this Edinburgh exhibition they are on show in a record box. I was an avid record collector as a young person (and then a DJ and a record shop worker in my 20s) so I’ve flicked through a lot of records in my time. In this format (I suppose you can call it an installation) you can flick through the pictures in the record box to get that record shop/DJ/vinyl collector experience (even though there is no actual vinyl in the sleeves). I don’t know how long the words will stay in order (and it doesn’t really matter either way) but I had quite a lot of fun doing the work so I hope other people can get some enjoyment from viewing it too. I’ve never really been a visual artist before.

 

I did deliberate for a while about whether to send the work off to this particular exhibition. I wasn’t sure to what extent I would identify myself as someone with ‘lived experience of mental health issues’ (though, undoubtedly, I am that). I don’t mention my issues often these days (they are mainly anxiety-related matters, quite a long list of restrictions, something of a personal lockdown at times...). They haven’t gone away – I’ve just got bored of hearing myself talk about them and so I try my best to get on with what I can when I can and not give myself too much of a hard time about it. I know there are people with more challenging, life-altering problems than mine (mental, physical, financial) so I just get on with my version of life as well as I can. A lot of it is pretty dull but I get a lot of help. I don’t always sleep well and that always makes everything seem worse (this week being particularly bad on that score, Covid-related mainly).

 

I have written about anxiety a bit in the past (a post back here on an earlier blog about my very first panic attack in about 1991) but I’m not going to go into a lot of detail this time. I would say I’ve never ‘beaten’ panic/anxiety exactly (and I did try pretty much everything), but I think I have mostly accepted it, accepted the failing if you like, and some days it affects my life more, others less. We can spend a lot of time trying to be perfect (or appear perfect) in so much of our lives, so I think, on the whole, that the admission of a big, stinking imperfection is a healthy move. 

 

There are lots of reasons I feel this way but I suppose one of them is definitely connected to my Dad’s suicide (for new readers this is very old news, 1973 to be exact). Having had this (and other challenges) in her life my Mum was all about everyone living the best life possible. She wanted everyone to find the people and paths that made them happy and she did everything she could to enable that for as many people as possible (I guess that is what made her happy). Of course enabling happiness doesn’t mean everyone necessarily finds it – happiness can be a complicated concept – but it was still a strong example to set. She was also a very anxious person and in that at least I am quite like her. She was born and grew up in Edinburgh so I am pleased to have a link to her for this event too.

This personal history of a major mental health-related loss means that mental health issues can’t help but be large in my field of vision too. I see lots of things in mental health terms. I read a lot of articles and books about mental health (changing attitudes and theories) and it is an everchanging business. People are often looking for that one, big answer but I think the truth is probably more like lots of little answers (plus a good standard of living for all – hard to do anything without that basic). Also I’ve always been interested in people on the edge of things in general and people with mental health issues often fall into that camp (not necessarily out of choice).  

 

With all this in mind, I’m looking forward to seeing all the work in the exhibition (I’ll be getting there at the end of the month hopefully). Who and what will my little record box be hanging out with for these couple of weeks in Edinburgh? Let me know if you get there before me.

 

  

The exhibition (Out of Sight Out of Mind) is open 12-30 October (12-6pm every day) at Summerhall (1 Summerhall, Newington, Edinburgh EH9 1PL). An online version of the exhibition starts on 19 October. I know there’s a lot else going on in the world but this event is free and features the work of over 200 other people so even if you don’t like my contribution you might find something else that does interest you (on or offline). 

 

*Fun A Day Dundee (FADD) has been running since 2011 and anyone can take part (you don’t even have to be local to Dundee). It involves doing something creative every day in January, sharing your work online (if you want) and taking part in an exhibition later on in the year. Dundee’s is not the only Fun A Day project – the first one was in Philadelphia, USA and there are quite a few others. The organisation Fun A Day Dundee is having a year off in January 2023 but will be back in January 2024.