Art exhibition aims to reduce fears around mental health

Exeter Phoenix from 18 November 2023 to 4 February 2024

Artist James Paddock aims to address the stigma around mental health through an exhibition at Exeter Phoenix.

James uses his lived experience of voice hearing to reveal stories and insights though his art.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is an operatic video, “Mirrored to the Core”. It is a love story about two young people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia whose telepathic voices are represented through song. The characters are playful, intellectual, and full of positive feelings with insight into their own condition. 

James said:
“My aim is to provide alternative perspectives and reduce fear around the condition by presenting voice hearers in a playful, thoughtful and approachable way. The exhibition will work on different levels so that there is something for everyone. I want to create a positive space devoted to lifting people from the negative impacts of living with mental illness. 

“Whilst many see our atypical brains as a negative thing, I aim to demonstrate that we can be incredibly creative, taking different approaches to life, and that this should be valued.”

Through positive representation, James hopes to encourage more people living with mental health conditions to take part in arts and culture, both as audiences and as creatives. James has been working with a neurodiverse cast and crew to create the films. He uses the universal experience of love to draw people into his work, to learn about his condition and the way he, and others like him, approach life. 

As well as the film, the exhibition will include an art installation inspired by James’s experience of mental illness. A line of T-shirts will give a narrative through a series of printed slogans reflecting on voice hearers and how things could be improved.

A fence constructed in the gallery will have holes cut into it, reflecting James’s personal experience of being sectioned (kept in hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983) and having escaped institutions.

Another film, “A duo becomes a quartet” will play on a monitor and tells a story about two voice hearers who have been sectioned.

Exeter Phoenix curator Matt Burrows said:
“The film at the centre of James’s exhibition uses the theme of love in the 21st century to demystify voice hearing and schizophrenia. The film is beautifully made and very clever. I think the whole exhibition will provoke some interesting conversations and deep thought amongst our visitors. This isn’t an easy subject to tackle, and James has done it brilliantly – he uses humour and playfulness as well as serious themes, making the subject approachable and inviting conversation about it.”

The exhibition ‘Life could be done so much better’ is at Exeter Phoenix from 18 November 2023 to 4 February 2024.