The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival commissioned five artists to create new work on the theme My Experience of Isolation in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In response to the coronavirus lockdown we wanted to amplify the creative voices of people who already understood isolation, in the interests of solidarity, empathy and the sharing of wisdom and experience.
Gail Aldam said: “We are very grateful to the huge number of artists who took the time to submit a proposal for this commission. The range and quality of ideas was highly impressive, and a reminder of how many important stories there are to tell about people’s experiences of isolation. We wish we were able to support more of these ideas and we hope that they are able to come to fruition in other ways.”
Amy Rosa has created a series of photographic self-portraits and creative writing/spoken text about living with complex post traumatic stress disorder.
A Journey Into Irony, is an enhanced narrative – part written, hyperlinked with video journal, poetry and song – that explores the reasons for a change in her mental health during the coronavirus crisis.
A Journey Into Irony, is an enhanced narrative – part written, hyperlinked with video journal, poetry and song – that explores the reasons for a change in her mental health during the coronavirus crisis.
A Journey Into Irony, is an enhanced narrative – part written, hyperlinked with video journal, poetry and song – that explores the reasons for a change in her mental health during the coronavirus crisis.
James McDermott has written and recorded two performance poems exploring the experiences of being an LGBTQ person during lockdown, a situation that has separated many people from supportive communities and safe spaces.
Rebecca Tantony has written a sequence of short poems and stories reflecting on how, as she puts it, “isolation is a narrative in my family history that has spanned generations”.