“Aren’t all artists a bit mad?”
Love Arts Festival 2013 by Tom Bailey …
When you’re putting up exhibitions in public spaces you have to be prepared for the public to take an interest and start talking to you. This happened last year when we were putting up the annual Arts & Minds show in the Light. The conversation ran as follows:
Man: ‘Are these your pictures?’
Me: ‘No, there’s a few artists. I just help organise it.’
Man: ‘Students is it?’
Me: ‘A couple, yes. A lot of the artists have mental health issues. That what we do, support for artists with …’
Man: Aren’t all artists a bit mad?’
Me: ‘I suppose so.’
We both chuckled. I felt uneasy afterwards, I probably should have been less chuckly and more challenging. The use of the term ‘mad’ isn’t really pleasant. There’s been a lot in the press recently about stigmatising words to describe mental health (eg the ‘mental patient’ costume furore; David Cameron calling Ed Miliband’s policies ‘nuts’). And it’s long been my aim to eradicate words such as ‘bonkers’, ‘crazy’ and ‘off his head’ from my personal lexicon. But I got the impression that this man wasn’t being horrible. And maybe he had a point? Are artists ‘a bit mad’?
A quick Google search springs forth a torrent of artists (painters, writers, actors, musicians) who had mental health issues. Van Gogh, Graham Greene, Goya, George Eliot – and that’s just the Gs. There’s long been the cliché of the ‘tortured genius’, struggling with demons but producing masterpieces. But is there something about being creative that forces you to address things you’d normally keep buried? Isn’t all art about expressing those things that can’t be expressed any other way? And don’t we look to our great artists to reflect the Big Questions Of Humanity? Maybe that man meant that artists have the ability to stand apart from the rest of us and that takes a particular type of mind. Or maybe he was just making a crap joke.
Either way, it got me thinking. I help run Love Arts, an arts festival that is about linking up creativity and mental well-being. Every year we attempt to programme events that get people thinking and talking about mental health. Time to Change did some research that simply talking about the idea of mental health can reduce the stigma endured by those people who have mental health issues. And what better way to promote discussion than putting on plays, exhibitions, films, gigs and all the rest? But if ‘all artists are mad’, where does that leave us? And how much should the art that we show have to reference ‘mental health’? What sort of things should we feature in Love Arts?
Many of the artists whose work features in the Arts & Minds exhibition ‘Highlights’ have mental health issues. But hardly any of the artwork addresses this issue directly. One of the artists in this year’s festival has a solo show of paintings that are joyous, beautiful and life-affirming. Why should she have to produce dark, introspective work, just because of her mental health ‘status’? We’re also featuring a new play (47 Sonnets) that represents someone’s mental state as two onstage characters. That piece practically screams ‘MENTAL HEALTH!’ and is certain to be excellent. On the flip side we’re hosting comedy writer and author David Nobbs. David’s not going to be talking specifically about mental health, but he created Reginald Perrin and to this day ‘doing a Reggie’ is taken to mean having a nervous breakdown, leaving your clothes on a beach and disappearing. And David Nobbs is appearing towards the end of the festival, when we could all do with a laugh.
It’s very difficult to strike a balance about what events we include because the area of mental health is so complicated. My mental health is different to yours and just saying someone has a ‘mental health issue’ can mean a whole variety of things. So our gigs, performances, exhibitions, comedy nights, book clubs, author talks, film showings, poetry readings and workshops all take a slightly different take on the subject. Sometimes it’s very explicit, sometimes it’s very subtle.
The assumption that ‘all artists are a bit mad’ is one of many misapprehensions about mental health. There are no easy answers. I’m a bit stumped at the moment because as I write this there’s about a million things to do to make sure the festival isn’t a complete disaster. You probably have all sorts of more wonderful, interesting and original thoughts on the matter. I know! You should come along to a Love Arts event and start sharing those great thoughts! See you there hopefully.
Love Arts 2013 launches at The Light on the Headrow in Leeds on Wednesday 2nd October at 4 – 6pm.
See loveartsleeds for all details.