Explore>Revolution>An Archive of Propaganda from a Mad People’s Uprising>

Mad People’s Strike

Lilith (Lea) Cooper

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.

I’m not the first person to consider – rather than consumers in the mental health system, what if patients are also workers? How might that inform the shape of our resistance?

Download and print your own

A4 Colour
A 4 Black and White

An Archive of Propaganda from a Mad People’s Uprising

This artwork is part of Lilith (Lea) Cooper’s imagined fictional archive of downloadable posters from The Mad People’s Uprising of 2033, commissioned for SMHAF 2023.

It asks 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.

Return to the exhibition