Transitions
Bethlem Gallery
8th January – 13th March 2020
Open 10am – 5pm Wednesday – Friday. Including first and last Saturdays of the month
An exhibition (8 Jan – 13 March 2020) created in collaboration with the Mother and Baby Unit, Bethlem Royal Hospital that looked at identity and the everyday, framed by the complex challenges experienced during the transition to motherhood.
Artists Esther Maxwell-Orumbie and Sarah Carpenter worked with service users and staff to create lino and mono prints inspired by the ordinary artefacts and occupations of individuals’ past and present lives. The exhibition also featured works made in occupational therapy sessions on the unit and in the Main Occupational Therapy Deptartment at the hospital.
Esther Maxwell-Orumbie’s work is strongly influenced by the ups and downs of motherhood and West African culture. Sarah Carpenter’s photo-montages and other artwork incorporate the processes of deconstruction, reconstruction and recycling of ideas drawn from her experiences of mental illness and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
The Mother and Baby Unit supports and treats women experiencing a wide variety of mental health issues in the perinatal period, including post-natal depression and post-natal psychosis.
Workshops
Lino printing
Saturday 1st February 2020, 10:30am-12:30pm
Join us on to learn the how to print with lino. Bring along an object to draw and print which could represent a transition, a time of change or reconfiguration in your life, or use one of ours.
Gelli plate printing
Saturday 7th March 2020, 10:30am-12:30pm
Come along and learn the technique of gelli plate printing. Inspired by our new exhibition Transitions, we will be making unique gelli plate prints and experimenting with texture.
Shibori dying
Saturday 4th April 2020, 10:30am-12:30pm
Learn to create beautiful patterns on fabric using Shibori, a centuries old Japanese dyeing technique. We will bind, fold and twist fabric before soaking it in a dye bath – when it’s ready we’ll unbind your work to reveal unique patterns. We will explore the process of change and transition that takes place in the dye bath, from plain fabric to patterned.
Talks
Becoming
Saturday 7th March 2020, 3:30-5pm
Artists Esther Maxwell-Orumbie and Sarah Carpenter will share their work and journeys in becoming artists in this informal discussion for International Women’s Day 2020. Joining them will be service users from the Mother and Baby Unit, Occupational Therpaist Jenny Shaieb and Dr Trudi Seneviratne OBE Consultant Adult & Perinatal Psychiatrist to discuss ideas and experiences of becoming and how we cope with transitions.