Kindred

Human experience is a matter of history, memory, and community. It is never just individual. Our interactions in families, friendship groups, and neighbourhoods, networks of interest and support, all impinge on our identity, whether for good or for ill. And in a climate of political, cultural, and economic atomisation, social cohesion seems elusive.

 The presence, or absence, of community is felt especially keenly in the face of mental health challenges. The artists whose work is represented in the collections of Bethlem Museum of the Mind represent this in a range of ways, arising from their diverse perspectives. ‘Listen to me, talk to me, understand me’, they appear to say. ‘Don’t just medicate me.’

Image: Holding Onto Daddy, 2016, by Benji Reid