Hollow Space and Outgrowth: extended chance to see

The Bethlem Gallery’s Hollow Space and Outgrowth exhibition formally closes to visitors today, and the Gallery won’t be open in its regular hours until 29 August. However, the Archives & Museum will be open as normal throughout the summer, from 9.30am to 4.30pm Mondays to Fridays and also from 11.00am to 5.00pm on Saturday 4 August and Saturday 1 September 2012. For the next month (until Tuesday 13 August), Archives & Museum staff would be willing to take any visitors who ask to see Hollow Space and Outgrowth over to the Gallery for the purpose – subject to their availability and other commitments, of course. In the meantime, we are delighted to publish the comments of our guest blogger Susan Slater-Tanner, Professor of Art History at the State University of New York, Orange, on the exhibition.

“What I found fascinating about Hollow Space and Outgrowth at the Bethlem Gallery exhibition was that the artists did not make ‘literal’ visual responses to the artefacts and objects; rather they took an emotive approach responding to and reflecting personally on incidents, experiences and events of their own lives — without agenda or guile. For example, the “prevention of self abuse; anti masturbation device” literally as an object evokes serious ethical issues of human restraint and control. One even might consider bondage connotations. The artistic response Collar of Shame, an upright anthropomorphized dog, was so unexpected, so lyric, so funny yet not without deep thought, consideration and serendipitous artistic response.

“For me, the exhibition and its curatorial theme is not about finding similar shaped objects, or like-minded colours and textures — it is about how we all relate to and cope with our world, our challenges, our fears and our hopes.”

Part of the exhibition. The dog is in the bottom right corner of the left-hand case. The anti masturbation device is above it.

Hollow Space and Outgrowth: New Exhibition at the Bethlem Gallery opens this week

From Wednesday, the Bethlem Gallery will present a veritable cabinet of curiosities showcasing contemporary ceramics made within the hospital’s creative studios, juxtaposed with medical apparatus from the Bethlem Museum’s collection. The exhibition will take the viewer on a journey through the meanings of objects, exploring the possible uses and narratives attached to them. From ECT machines to abstract clay sculptures, the items on display reveal how they came into being and the significance that they held for individuals at the Bethlem – be these magical, fearful or useful.

Artists, patients and staff members delve into the museum’s collection to creatively investigate, interpret and shed new light on the mysterious objects evidencing centuries of existence of Bethlem Royal Hospital, ‘Bedlam’, the oldest functioning psychiatric hospital in the world.

The hospital sits in a 240 acre site in Beckenham, Kent where it was moved from central London in the 1930s. Amongst the facilities available for patients is an impressive set of arts studios including printmaking facilities, a purpose-built pottery and The Bethlem Gallery. Art is an important part of the therapeutic process of recovery for patients.

Katy Phillips, Pottery Therapist, says of the exhibition; “Much of the museum’s equipment was perplexing in its use. The objects are of interest from both symbolic and conceptual perspectives as well as from a functional and craft perspective – examples of this are the silver cup that was awarded for the tug of war and the highly crafted large metal feeding syringes. I was very inspired by Bethlem Artist James Tanner’s contemporary piece of work as it too is like a piece of unexplained machinery, the viewer can decide for themselves what it might have been part of and what its original functional purpose was.

“Engaging people in this project has provoked thought inspiring conversations in the studio. Two of the artists have chosen to respond to the ECT machines, they are both people who have had ECT as part of their treatment and both reported very different experiences. These memories have been interpreted by the artists and given ceramic form, creating powerful testimonials to past experiences, causing reflection and providing a context for current making.”

Some items seem innocuous enough (knives and forks, a nit comb, a pair of bellows, a trophy awarded to the winners of the staff tug-of-war competition) while others come freighted with meaning (a drug jar, a cylindrical patient feeder). Hollow Space and Outgrowth brings multiple perspectives to bear on the challenges represented by these objects and generates new questions.

Hollow Space and Outgrowth will be part of London’s first arts in health festival being launched at the Tate Modern 13th – 20th June 2012. For more information visit: http://www.creativityandwellbeing.org.uk

Opening Event: 13th June, 3 – 6pm

Exhibition continues: 14th June – 13th July
Opening times: Wed, Thurs, Fri, 11am – 6pm

Gallery and Museum open Saturday 7th July, 12pm – 5pm, for the Bethlem Sunfayre.