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An Ecology of Mind at Bethlem Gallery

An Ecology of Mind at Bethlem Gallery, brings together four artists with an interest in the complex relationships connecting art, ecology and health, and the melding of inner and outer ‘natures’ inspired by the grounds of Bethlem Royal Hospital. Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson, Philip Deed, Aidan Moesby and Ronnie all respond to the natural environment of the hospital’s grounds to present works in film, collage, photography, and installation, using nature as a resource, as provider of material, and enabler of relationships.

 Walking the grounds of Bethlem Royal Hospital as a form of research to develop ideas for her commission, multi-disciplinary artist Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson presents a multi-layered installation mapping out sound and video, wall and poetry texts, and objects exploring feminist perspectives on healing and ecology: autobiography and speculative fiction, personal and familial objects, locally and ancestrally grown plants and herbs and two new collaborative film works: the greeting, exploring grief, mental health and ancestry as a site of joy and liberation; and  3 windows (of remembering) depicting a breath-channelling ritual and conversations with Seyi Adelukun and Sarah Kameela Impey. 

Referencing inner states of mind, Philip Deed’s artwork presents six abstract collages in small diorama style frames and a large-scale print on the gallery wall. His framed collage I’m Nearly Healthy (a line from ‘Your Heart Out’ by The Fall), acts as a prompt through which the other works can be read.

Reflecting on global and individual physical and emotional states, Aidan Moesby’s Blanket Coverage is an installation of three blankets – fire, survival and comfort – presented in red, purple and green tubes that draws subtle parallels between climate change in the over-heating of the world, and being internally overwhelmed by emotional extremes. Moesby will also develop a tool kit guide for increasing awareness of personal emotional weather to be used in the Hospital grounds and elsewhere.

 Ronnie will be showing Flora/Structure, a series of four pairings of C-type photographic prints that contrast architectural details from buildings in the grounds of the Royal Bethlem Hospital with close-ups images of flowers and plants taken while he was a resident there.

 For the installation Test-Site, technicians and staff worked with the idea of the site as resource, using clay taken from the earth in Bethlem’s grounds. Ceramics tutor Evelyn Pelayo, and senior occupational therapy technician Josip Lizatovic made photographic and clay objects; curator Michaela Ross decorated a bowl, with experimental raku techniques, guided by ceramicist and technician, Karta Kaur.

The site of Bethlem Gallery and Bethlem Royal Hospital reflects changes in attitudes at the turn of the last century, when gardens and parks began to be an integral part of treatment for mental and physical health. Bethlem Royal Hospital moved out of central London at this time, in line with new thinking about the influence of the environment on what is now called ‘wellbeing’. Hospital residents were given access to nature, fresh air, and therapeutic activity.

During An Ecology of Mind, there will be a series of public workshops re-imagining the Hospital grounds as a cultural and natural ‘commons’. Artists will build on the local knowledge of Hospital staff, residents and visitors to produce guides and toolkits to help navigate our relationship to the world, ourselves, and to each other. 

Care in all its forms – as political action, response to injustice, as support, community or living well together – is at the core of Bethlem Gallery’s 2022 programme, which marks 25 years since the space opened in 1997 in the grounds of the Bethlem Royal Hospital in south east London.

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