Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival

A Banner at the top reads ‘Mad Patient Strike’ in red, outlined in white, against grey striped bars. Beneath this is a black strip of waves, with a red heraldic wolf with a pattern of white flowers over the top. Three greyscale photos are reproduced on the poster, bordered in red: an image of a tower block, an image of lightning striking and causing an explosion, and an image of a row of hospital beds and a nurse standing over them. Red text reads: Strike, Thursday 3rd Feb 2033, Stand in Solidarity. Beneath this a black strip of waves is at the bottom of the page, and white text over the top reads: We don’t need psychiatrists. Psychiatrists need us.
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An Archive of Propaganda from a Mad People’s Uprising

Lilith (Lea) Cooper

Lilith (Lea) Cooper is an artist, zine librarian and researcher based in Kirkcaldy, Fife. They produce multimedia zines, prints, comics, writing, events and workshops.

They set out to create an imagined fictional archive of downloadable posters from The Mad People’s Uprising of 2033, asking what a Mad revolution might look like, creating a space to imagine beyond the present day, and locating today’s Mad, survivor and mental health activism in a longer genealogy.

These posters were created for the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2023, on the theme of ‘Revolution’.

I wanted to imagine an archive of future propaganda, and in creating a fictional future archive I wanted to create a space for imagining, a space to ask: What do we want? What would a Mad revolution be fighting for? What would it look like?

This is what I wanted, but the present kept creeping in. There’s something important in how this future imagining was frustrated. I don’t know if I set myself an impossible ask – I wanted something different but this is what I’ve got.

Lilith (Lea) Cooper

These posters are designed to be shared and printed. Each poster is available to print in A4 black and white low ink, A4 black and white, A4 colour and A3 RISO colour separated formats.

Click on the images below to view each poster in more detail, read about what inspired them, and download the files to print your own.

You can also read more about the project in the accompanying zine.

Download the zine

Poster Gallery

Revolution Commissions

This project is one of our ‘revolution’ commissions for the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2023. We commissioned five artists to create new work to address our festival theme and challenge established ways of thinking about mental health.

Explore the Commissions