Our Exhibition

We created an exhibition as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2023 around the theme of 'revolution'

ALPHA // BIGOTRY

Mixed media collage

Patient Diagnosis: 

6A05.0 - Attention deficit disorder

 

 

Through this piece the artist aims to raise awareness of the pervasive nature of bigotry and its impact on health and wellbeing. With two imposing spires of Westminster Cathedral flanking its composition symbolising the enduring role of institutions on our societal norms. Powerful bodies, including the mental health system, play a complicit role in upholding the existing social status quo, stigmatising those who deviate from the norm as 'immoral' or 'disordered.' The artist draws inspiration from lived-experiences of oppression with an intersectional awareness that others are endure their own unique challenges, such as:

 

  • The disproportionately poor mental health outcomes within minority ethnic communities, leading to increased detentions and inadequate access to healthcare.
  • Mothers in religious minority groups who experience extreme discrimination have been found to give birth to lower weight babies compared to those who do not have to endure such adversities; Demonstrating the physiological health implications of bigotry being passed down through generations.
  • The history of mental healthcare is awash with the mistreatment of women. From their confinement for social non-conformity and involuntary electroconvulsive therapy to shock them into submission, to the medical gaslighting and ‘emotionally unstable’ diagnoses that are used to pathologically confine, condemn and dismiss them in the present day.
  • Male suicides rates also reflect the maintenance of patriarchal stereotypes as harmful.
  • Being gay was only declassified as mental disorder in 1990, meanwhile the transgender community continue to be subjected to demeaning (and at times deadly) attacks on their personhood.

 

Institutions and services may claim to have left their past of diagnosing ‘hysteria’, ‘drapetomania’ and ‘ego dystonic homosexuality’ behind but you do not have to dig deep to find discrimination and oppression are very much still commonplace in its practices and ideologies. The message embedded in this piece is clear: You cannot truly provide help if you also perpetuate hierarchy and oppression. A call to action for us to play our part in dismantling discriminatory systems, speaking out against injustice, and forging a world where all individuals can thrive and realise their full potential by having their rights upheld.

Please note: The diagnosis used does not necessarily reflect a psychiatric diagnosis received by the artist. These were included to reflect the current practice of labelling and how these relate to lived-experience.

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