SERVICE-USER ART AND ACTIVISM
Dolly Sen taking part in a Hospital Rooms workshop, and work as part of one of her workshops.
evolved since you began?” DS: “I started doing creative stuff just to make sense of my own experience, because – let’s face it – there’s very little material around stuff like psychosis by people who have gone through it. There are loads of films by people who’ve not gone through it, and writings. What I wanted to do was just to make sense of my own experience, and share it with the world, but as I got older, I started to look beyond myself.” “While I was a part of a community,
we did a lot of stuff around the Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, south London, which at the time had a 24-hour emergency clinic. If you felt you were in crisis, you could go there at any time of day – and so we campaigned to keep that open. However, I realised – when I was outside with a few people with placards – that that was a very ineffective way of campaigning, because it touched nobody in the building behind me, or the people going past me on Denmark Hill. They probably just thought: ‘Just another bunch of mad people’. So I realised you have to be creative and funny as well to make mental health an accessible thing for the general public to grab hold of. “So, when I did my TripAdvisor review on the Maudsley Hospital, that’s where people understood what I was trying to say. The people who are in charge of the Maudsley still remember that kind of thing, because in 2019 I curated my first art exhibition at the Bethlem, and it was hard for them to get money because of what I did. I just thought, wouldn’t it be funny? You know – nobody has TripAdvisor’ed a psychiatric hospital, and I thought that was funny in itself. So, the title of my review is ‘You don’t have to be mad to stay here’.” HC: “And you posted that on TripAdvisor?” DS: “It was taken down. Somebody must have complained, but luckily I had screenshotted it before that happened. There are some unusual ways to highlight stuff, I think.”
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The important role of humour HC: “Tell us about the role of humour in your work, and why it’s important.” DS: “There’s a lot of things you can do in psychiatry that will be met with some kind of attempt at control, or you will sense the power. It makes me feel better to connect through humour. It goes straight to the person’s heart, really. It bypasses so many things, including stuff like prejudice.” HC: “Do you think sometimes your humour is about making people feel a little bit uncomfortable as well?” DS: “Yes, let’s face it, Hannah, you know, being human is really a ridiculous career. Sometimes people need reminding of that. Actually I can point out a few things. Being human is like being between Ape and Angel. Of course you have to laugh, because that is a really weird place to be.” HC: “So what’s it like when you get inspired by an idea you want to bring to life? Is there generally a change that you’re wanting to see as part of it, or what’s motivating you?” DS: “I think it depends on the issue really, but I want people who are experiencing the issue to feel that they’re not alone, that somebody has their back. I did some protests at the DWP headquarters in London, and there were many reasons why I did it, but that was a major motivation. “People asked: ‘Oh, why do you do
it? You’re not going to stop government policy’, but if it hadn’t annoyed them, they wouldn’t have called the police either. I talked to the police officer, who asked: ‘Why are you doing this?’, and I said: ‘Well, I just want to live in the world where people don’t starve to death and people aren’t bullied into suicide because of the benefit system. Who’s going to tell that story if I don’t?’ It doesn’t even have to be campaigning; creativity itself teaches people that actually, you’re not alone. It is a courage teacher.” HC: “It sounds like there are themes emerging from what you’re saying about wanting to reach out to connect
with people, to show them that they’re not alone, and a very grounded type of approach to making change.” DS: “I do pack a lot of into my life, but I realise how short life is life is. I don’t think many people do.” HC: “You’ve been involved with Hospital Rooms. Tell us about that.” DS: “I was quite surprised when they approached me, because I am quite political and subversive in my work. I thus asked them if they realised who I am and what I do, and they said they did, and knew what my work was like. My local psychiatric hospital is Hellesdon Hospital in Bury St Edmunds – where they are redeveloping a lot of the grounds. So they asked me to create an outdoor piece, which is still in progress. “I just keep hearing about the good
work that Hospital Rooms have done in recruiting artists from diverse backgrounds and working with people on wards to push boundaries. You know – because you hear from people things like ‘You can’t have colour in psychiatric wards’. It will impact people negatively, and stuff like that. Hospital Rooms have proven that not to be true. The kind of colour palette of people in psychiatric hospital isn’t Magnolia and sickly green.”
Art’s role in hospitals HC: “What message would you want to share with the members of the Design in Mental Health Network about the role of art in hospitals? What does it do, and why is it important?” DS: “Art is human; it talks about the human being. Some people think that being mad is a separate thing, but actually being mad is very human. Art in hospitals could be just pure decoration – things to lift people’s spirits, but it doesn’t have to be just that.
“I can sit in the waiting room and see the same old paint. You know, pictures; just because they’re happy clappy and that is it. But there is a lot of art that talks about
MAY 2024 | THE NETWORK
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust / Hospital Rooms
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