Open Wednesday – Friday + first and last Saturdays of each month

An immersive sensory environment of interactive sound works and soft sculptures exploring ideas and nature and the cosmos.

India Harvey, Gawain Hewitt and musicians from City of London Sinfonia and young people from Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital Schools.

Facilitated by classical music, sunlight and shadow and bespoke technologies, the exhibition reveals some of the processes used by artists working in psychiatric settings to encourage young people to refocus their attention away from illness and move towards immediacy, spontaneity and improvisation.

Artist and composer Gawain Hewitt has collaborated with classical  musicians from the City of London Sinfonia (CLS) and young people from the Schools, as part of the award-winning Sound Young Minds music-making project.

In the collaborations, musicians on harp, clarinet, violin, viola, double bass, cello, oboe, French horn, bassoon and other instruments drew on themes of bird song, the seasons and astronomy from CLS’ repertoire and classical pieces by Vivaldi and JS Bach. The musicians responded directly to sounds made by the young people on bespoke instruments and digital platforms produced by Hewitt, who turned the hybrid compositions into sculptures.

Working in safe and gently exploratory ways with another group of young people from the Schools, artist and researcher India Harvey created new methods of making within multi-sensory environments. They wore drawing and painting tools attached to their bodies, utilised sunlight to make cyanotype prints with found natural objects, and cast shadows with aluminium sculptures on folded fabric to create fractal patterns.

Dawn Chorus, Gawain Hewitt. Photography (c) 2021 Emile Holba

Hexagon, Gawain Hewitt. Photography (c) 2021 Emile Holba

Four Seasons, Gawain Hewitt. Photography (c) 2021 Emile Holba

Soft sculptures, furniture and cushion, co-produced interactive textile works made by India Harvey and young people at the school

Psychiatric settings can present complex challenges for artists who work with and alongside people as part of their practice. For young people who are unwell, dealing with separation from family, carers and friends as well as adjusting to life on a busy hospital ward with a hectic schedule of talking therapy sessions, appointments with social workers, occupational therapy activities and school can leave little time or energy for other things. In this context, artists Gawain and India, who share similar ways of working, have created supportive spaces with the school where the young people can be free in the moment, try something new and have the permission to experiment.

‘We’ve been playing as making, leaning into messiness and translating between the senses’ – India Harvey

‘The sound sculptures contain sonic fragments from our workshops, but also replicate some of the experience of exploration of sound and music from our workshops – so that the visitor becomes another co-composer in the production of an ever-changing score or piece, alongside the musicians and young people behind the recordings’ – Gawain Hewitt

Thanks to Maudsley Charity and Sound Young Minds funders Youth Music and The Calleva Foundation.