"Illness is a part of every human being's experience…
It is the great confessional; things are said, truths are blurted out which health conceals"
Bella Kerr, artist, lecturer and curator and Amanda Roderick, creative producer, have extensive experience of the management and delivery of projects and exhibitions in galleries, off-site locations, cultural institutions and educational settings. They are co-curating Deserters with Caroline Humphreys who has, in the last decade, returned to the study and practice of art and design. This follows a career working with national and local bodies in Wales to address the needs of people experiencing exploitation, sexual violence and abuse, as well as the housing and support needs of homeless people and those with vulnerabilities.
This project grew from conversations about the stories artists told when exhibiting in previous shows – ‘unwellness’ embedded in their making, as a force that both obstructs and permits.
Devising exhibitions with Fringe Arts Bath over the last two years has also brought up the perennial question of what is ‘good art’. ‘Bad’ things often make ‘good’ art, such as photographs of war or the fury of protest. Is it the very ‘badness’ that makes them ‘good’- that provides authenticity, action in the moment or under stress, or revelation of ‘truths’ that are usually hidden?
Where is the line? We have severed the head from the body, the well from the ill, set ‘good ‘against ‘bad’. Yet the presence of distress, treatment or pain, often accompanied by isolation, while debilitating, is also the source of energy, urgency and purpose in making for many.
By putting equal emphasis on the physical and digital expressions of the exhibition we hope to acknowledge the difficulty some artists may have with delivering or installing work, and the reach that can be achieved beyond physical attendance.
Bella Kerr
April 2024
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Quote: Extract from On Being Ill by Virginia Wolff, 1926
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The idea for this exhibition arose from wide ranging and searching discussions between myself, Bella and Amanda, around how ‘unwellness’ affects body, mind and soul. Our conversations delved into the realms of ongoing illness, unliveable suffering, death and loss – which have irrevocably changed and tenderised us all to differing degrees through our varied experiences and subsequent and on-going exchanges.
In life being unwell can lead to a feeling of otherness, of feeling apart from or even cast out from. It necessitates a hitherto unanticipated challenge as to how one grapples with and negotiates a new interface within a fundamentally transformed landscape. As one of the changelings I can vouch for being altered in terms of physical energy, cerebral capacity and general appetite for outing myself and engaging in a world that sometimes seems to lack empathy. It becomes necessary to embrace and develop different patterns of being - both in life generally and in respect of creative activity.
So emerging from our discussions and looking more closely at the creative process we had many questions which formed our idea for Deserters. There’s often a debate about mainstreaming - how to make the ‘unwell’ fit in and join in and we wanted to consider the opposite of this position and see the work that would emerge from holding a space solely for those who have experience of desertion from ‘ordinary’ life. Our inquiry is to see what themes and focus might develop and to facilitate an opportunity for dialogue between artists and others both within and outside of the exhibition space. Ultimately what do artists who are unwell want to say about themselves to each other and their audience? Do they, and how do they wish to be heard and known? What methods are utilised to share the language of pain, distress and difference?
We know Deserters are not an homogenous group and it’s our belief that alongside core commonalities there exists a rich diversity to be explored. This ongoing, evolving project and its extended digital catalogue, are small contributions to a debate that we warmly invite others to join.
Caroline Humphreys
April 2024