School of Culture and Communication - Research Publications

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Seeing art by people with experience of mental illness and/or psychological trauma: a multi-dimensional framework

WHITE, ANTHONY (The Cunningham Dax Collection, 2008)

Mental illness is a subject clouded by misunderstanding and prejudice. Creative works by people with an experience of mental illness and/or psychological trauma are often similarly misunderstood. There is a tendency for such works to be viewed from one standpoint only, thereby denying their multi-faceted nature. The exhibition, The Art of Making Sense, has been developed to resolve one of these difficulties. Several years of research undertaken independently by the Cunningham Dax Collection, and more recently in partnership with several partner institutions, have led to the development of a “multi-dimensional” framework for exhibiting, viewing and understanding the art of people with mental illness and/or psychological trauma. The central idea behind the multi-dimensional framework is that creative work by people with experience of mental illness and/or psychological trauma cannot be understood through one perspective. As this exhibition proposes, such work can be viewed through several different interpretive frameworks including, but not limited to, the personal, the medical, the ethical, the historical, and the creative.