Yujin Jeong (she/her) used to do her work based on her personal experience. She was a nurse in a university hospital which is located in Korea specialising in the leukaemia ward. In the meantime, she has been contemplating the questionable hospital system and discrimination in the profession of “care” and “nursing”. After working in a ward for more than three years, a nurse, whose eyes no longer smile, discovers myself narrating the preparation process for colonoscopy almost like reciting a script, delivering it with a gentle voice as if recorded voices. Her work usually emerged as narratives based on dehumanisation due to mechanical tasks and the sense of powerlessness of the recurring deaths.

Token of Love
Fruit basket, walnuts, bed frames, milk cartons with foil, pill boxes, diapers, cigarettes, wax

In Korea, people used to give patients fruits, flowers, cups and so on. Especially, fruit baskets are commonly seen in hospitals in Korea. Due to the expensive nature of fruits in Korea, fancy fruit baskets are often used to express love to patients. Ironically, patients who just had an operation or who have immune systems could not be able to eat these fresh fruits.

Kayleigh Peters (she/her) is an artist, focusing on the space she inhabits as a woman through the paradigm of craft. By enveloping the deep connection to material and the body, to confront the lack of research within the medical industry and the societal taboo surrounding gynaecological health and hidden illnesses. Through her personal experiences her work reflects the internal, physical, and imagined battles of being a woman. Since graduating from the University of Brighton with a First-class honours’ degree in 3D Design and Craft in 2021. She has been selected for the LSM Art Award 2022, as well as exhibiting with Cluster Crafts, Thrown Contemporary, AKA Contemporary, most recently in a group show, All of the Things None of the Time.

The Curtain
Textiles and Mixed media

The Curtain was conceived through first-hand experience of long-term poor health, and the subsequent negative experiences in hospital. The idea of a hospital curtain offers a small perceived idea of privacy, yet when suffering from hidden and taboo illnesses, there is a sense of irony. The hand-embroidered panels that are exposed only when the curtain is opened, tells a story of one woman’s health battles of a multitude of illnesses, long waits, and inadequate treatment options. However, this isn’t a rare story. Unfortunately, many people experience similar as they navigate a healthcare system that is rife with gendered biases. The Curtain continues evolving through new health battles, and further research through history noting how societal healthcare has evolved over time.

Lucinda Purkis' (they/them) work, much like a diary, can serve to be a vehicle for the personal: the therapeutic, emotional and spiritual development and marks of life’s small moments. They have an interest in interior worlds and secret and intimate modes of expression and therefore underground DIY publishing, the art of letter writing, published diaries and graffiti all feed into their practice.

There are a sequence of evolving avatars who recur in their works who oscillate between cartoonish and obscure and diarise the Purkis' lived experiences.

Tobias and the Angel
Quilt, hand-embroidery, patchwork, silk and cotton.

Tobias and the Angel is from the Old Testament Book of Tobit. It is about a young man named Tobias who is accompanied on a journey by a man who at the end of the story reveals himself as the Archangel Raphael. The hand embroidery in this piece is inspired by the painting by the Workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. This story is one of many examples in the Bible of an angel appearing in moment of precariousness, difficulty, despair or desolation as a figure of comfort, solace or a practical aid. Living daily with a disability can feel impossible - this piece is an ode to the angels Purkis pictures around them lifting them into the next day.

Darling Vinciguerra (they/them) uses art as a process for releasing, and thereby providing relief from, those strong inaudible emotions; surrounding topics such as grief and the bitter-sweet tendencies in life. They explore such topics in their varied practices by using reoccurring imagery and motifs that symbolise a certain aspect of their emotional experience.

‘Shhhh.’
An etching on A5 paper.

Megan Sharples (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with textiles, film, poetry and installation. Their work celebrates unique identity expression, advocating for the freedom to self-define. Through depictions of their own struggles with mental health and gender dysphoria, Sharples works to make sense of their own lived experience, both for themselves and for the viewer, in a search for connection and healing.

Time Has Run Out
Intarsia knit Merino wool

Living with depression and anxiety, I spent years internalising negative beliefs without questioning their validity, unconsciously accepting them as fact. I am now learning to pull these thoughts into my conscious mind, to rationally analyse these beliefs, to diminish their credibility.

This work is a visual performance of an intangible process. In knitting out these thoughts, I create objects that I can pin out, assess and rephrase. By bringing them into the real, I remove them from the private shame within my head, creating a physical distance that generates new understanding.

The repetitive process of knitting is very meditative and healing. The time spent knitting these pieces is time not spent obsessing, stuck in negative thought patterns.

Laura Carey (she/her) is a British female artist (b. 1986, London, UK). Graduating her MA Fine Art from City and Guilds of London Art School in 2023, Laura’s practice is regularly based around conceptualism and portraiture, exploring 2D and 3D elements, installation, text and performance. Laura is currently developing a studio practice based in South Bermondsey, London, UK, and will be exhibiting in the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery in London later this year.

Item I Don’t Know How to Miss You, 2022
Oil on canvas

This painting explores the complex relationship between the artist and her father, who passed away from cancer in 2022. Exploring the complexities of grief, whilst anticipating the death of her mother - also from terminal illness - Laura sought to address the taboo around death and grieving within British society. To attempt an understanding and preparation for the end stages of life, and the changes upon the body, Laura chose to paint a deathbed portrait of her father. Much estranged during the final years of his life, the painting style and colour palette depicts this absent and muted relationship, and the harshness of illness, generating empathy regardless of circumstance. This work allowed catharsis, providing a form of closure within trauma.

Eric Fei (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist from Shanghai. He just graduated with the Graduate Diploma at the Royal College of Art. His artistic journey is deeply intertwined with his personal experiences and observations, exploring the complexities of self-growth from a post-modern urban Chinese city.

As a Chinese student studying abroad, Fei notes the gap between international students' actual experiences and expectations. He explores themes of the post-pandemic impact, addiction to digital screens, procrastination and alienation. His on-site paintings feature characters within illusory environments, juxtaposing idealism and realism.

Through the dérive, a process of drifting and exploring, he genuinely conveys the nuanced experiences of international students in today's globalised world.

I think I Need to Sit Up
Acrylic on canvas

He was reflecting on his experiences as an international student. The internet, while bridging the gap between foreign lands and home, also makes real participation in life abroad seem less essential. He felt trapped in a liminal space that was neither truly connected nor completely isolated.

He often feels dizzy, like waking up from a dream, after scrolling his phone for a while.

The room was strangely quiet.


The void and static in reality. The excitement and intensity in the phone. Painting and gazing at himself from an unusual perspective. That dramatic contrast, in a way, happens similarly between the painting and the audience.

Georgia Grinter (she/her/they/them)(b.1995) works and lives in London. She received their BA from The Glasgow School of Art in 2018. She has had solo exhibitions 'Cross Words' 2018, Glasgow and 'Traffic Lights' 2020, London. Her work has been included recent group shows; 'A Path With A Heart' The Split Gallery, London, 2023; 'Dragon Vets' Fitzrovia Gallery, London, 2022. She has attended residency PADA, Lisbon, 2018 and their work features in magazines incl. House and Garden and ArtMazeMag.

Stuck in Flight
Oil on Board

Georgia's work looks at mapping out pointers, based on meaningless objects in everyday passings, that develop into possessing circadian importance. Things catch her eye, each staying the same while moods and days shift, over the same spot. She is interested in 'influence', and what it means to ‘like’ things; repeated interactions supplying environmental routine, or real aesthetic appeal; from advertising, to a crumbling wall, to our favourite colour combinations. From corners of vision or directly in front, hues blur or become defined; illuminated by the sunset, break lights or window reflections. Playing with seriousness of 'influence', she uses city symbols, boundary lines and "rubbish", to break apart meanings and reinterpret as shape, colour and acquaintances, to test our control of our individual perspectives and natural instincts.

Alice Rorrison (they/them) is a South London-based artist who investigates queer experiences within the mundane. Their current practice centres on demystifying body hair on AFAB (assigned female at birth) bodies, exploring the inherent value of materiality and its connection to traditional craft processes in this context. By examining how queer bodies are perceived in intimate moments, they seek to challenge conventional stereotypes, embracing imperfections in a celebration of authenticity.

endometriosis undiagnosed? (MY FUCKING UTERUS HURTS)
Hair extensions, tights, nails, glass, wooden frame

endometriosis undiagnosed ? (MY FUCKING UTERUS HURTS) was created out of a frustration in the underdiagnosis of endometriosis.

The work explores a fragile personal relationship with the trivialisation of period pain, how AFAB people are told to "just deal with it", and an anger at the seemingly endless doctors exams which eventually all resulted as inconclusive.

Endometriosis affects 1 in 10 AFAB people (which equates to 176 million people worldwide), yet on average it can take 8 years from onset symptoms to get a diagnosis.

The cause of endometriosis is unknown and there is no definite cure.

Alex Bowie (she/her) is a visual artist with a background in socially engaged art projects, arts education and the therapeutic use of the arts within community, education and healthcare settings. She has worked in the UK and internationally. 

Alex’s practice stems from ongoing curiosity about the world, its shapes textures patterns. Influenced by colour theory, crafts and collected stories from her travels; her work is colourful, playful and informed. She enjoys venturing into new creative processes including printmaking, textiles and co-designed public mural commissions. She turned to creativity as a way of

supporting her through a skin cancer diagnosis and subsequent surgeries in 2022 and 2023. She continues to use this experience as an inspiration for her work, and a way to process what has gone on.

A Change of Expression (work in progress)
Blind emboss print

Following almost two years waiting for a biopsy for a piece of unusual looking skin above her lip, Alex Bowie was diagnosed with a basal cell carcinoma in January 2023.


She was told that 'if you were to have any kind of cancer, this is the one you want as it won't spread.' However in the time she spent waiting to be diagnosed, the legion had grown substantially and she needed facial reconstruction to fill in the gap above her lip after its removal. This has left a shape on her face that changes with her facial expressions.


A Change of Expression (WIP) was created four weeks after her surgery at PH Lerma studio in Buenos Aires. It is the start of a body of work that she continues to develop.

Nikki Gardham’s (she/her) work delves into personal observation, memory and folklore through a practise of drawing.

Using changeable processes, such as print, collage and drawing, creates time to layer, obscure and reveal motifs and full opportunity to manifest.

This process also helps to chart feelings, unconsciously, as things are made and remade.

Born in Essex, she studied at Cambridge School of Art before attending the Postgraduate Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School. She has exhibited in the UK and Europe and is currently showing with 8 Holland Street Gallery, London.

Alongside her studio practise, Nikki works in collaboration with some of London most inspiring collections & institutions, including Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Royal Drawing School, Wallace Collection and the V&A.

Never sleep again
Watercolour Monotype

In Never sleep again, feelings of anxiety are present, causing an inability to sleep. The melodrama of the title comes from those wee hours when you feel desperate for sleep.

Emmanuelle Norre (she/her) is a third-year student in Fine Art Painting at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL.

Her practice surround’s themes of self-analysis and the process of acceptance through self-expression. Navigating her environment by articulating inner thoughts into forms emerging as landscapes.

The mind is connected to the body. Energies and emotions can get stuck, creating knots that can manifest as health issues.

The mind is connected to the body. Energies and emotions can get stuck, creating knots that can manifest as health issues.

Clearing Conversation
Charcoal, oil Stick, graphite powder, salt on canvas

This piece is about revelation, conversation and clearing.

Moments when you couldn’t speak up or be true to yourself. Emotions get stuck, the mind is connected to the body, and it attempts to communicate this.

An overdeveloped muscle progressively grinds down teeth during rest and waking hours. A stomach unable to comprehend its own digestion process. Being too caught up in thoughts and anxieties to notice.

Revelation, it is time to act when it is all too much. The forms take shape, resembling organs and punctuation marks. The body wants to be heard. A step towards finding a solution and moving forward.

Roxy Toledo Munrose (they/them) is a textile and performance artist, born (26/03/03) in east london, where they still live and work.

With an interest in spirituality, feminism and their own heritage, Roxy attempts to explore, develop and advocate for these concerns.

Working in an array of materials, spanning from textile; crochet, knitting, weaving and embroidery, 'womens work', to soundscapes, metal and found objects, tying them together with performance interwoven into every installation. Repetition, craft and anger act as threads, tying their work into an unmistakable portfolio.

They are currently studying at Camberwell College of arts and have exhibited at Whitechapel Gallery, Earth Hackney, Bargehouse Gallery, the Horse Hospital and Copeland Gallery.

LIST OF THINGS I AM PISSED OFF ABOUT and LIST OF THINGS THAT I WANT
Hand embroidered calico stretched over frame.

This embroidery duo were completed at a time of emotional distress and mental health crisis for the artist.

While trying to console themselves through a difficult period of grief, overwhelm and anger, the artist used the longform technique of embroidery to sit with the words, processing their emotions with each individual stitch.

Process is an important element of this work, without the devotion of time to the words the artist would not have had the time or space to process their emotions, nor would the piece have a handmade feel about it, tying it directly to those whose hands have stitched it.

The aesthetic value of the works hint to kitschy, household objects and materials, but the words symbolise the opposite of that. Forcing the viewer to sit with the uncomfortable truths of the artist's life, the artist is giving themselves permission to be honest, open, and consume time.

The second piece in this trio is an extension to point 3 of the first, and serves as a deeper look into the life of the artist.

The artist hopes that you will find the time and space to honour your truth.

Anastassia Zamaraeva (she/her) is a sculptural ceramic artist based in London. She has been working with clay in some capacity since childhood. Now, as a qualified art psychotherapist, her practice rests on the meeting point of art and art therapy. The draw of clay for Anastassia is in its intimacy and innate ability to connect us to our unconscious. Her work, led by intuition and a sense of play, explores the multifaceted experience of being human; with all its melancholy, discomfort and humour.

Slither
Ceramic, copper

Slither is based on Anastassia’s dad’s experience of living with multiple sclerosis. He describes MS not as a foreign entity but as something that is part of him. The slugs are made from moulds of his fingers. Part him, part MS. The copper ring in the centre keeps the slugs at bay but inevitably keeps parts of him at bay too.

Catriona Faulkner (she/her) is an artist who’s practice probes and scrutinises pain, ritual and devotion at a critical, aesthetic and personal level. Employing assemblage and hand stitch methods to communicate and examine her own life and relationship living with a chronic pain condition and related health issues from an accident in 2000.

The work is an obsessive all consuming approach of collecting, selection and process entangled with symbolic references and metaphors, where shrine like works emerge from a melting pot of inspiration and experiences.

Catriona’s work can be deceptively comfortable and appealing as the viewer is immersed and seduced by the opulence and intrigue of the process, however delve into her language of materials and narratives that lurk behind the surface and you are exposed to a personal world and language responding to chronic pain and obsession.

Repeat
Hand stitch assemblage

The piece of work Repeat investigates the cycles of medication the artist has been prescribed for chronic pain. Using personal and found objects Catriona’s practice uses hand stitch to weave narratives of ritual , pain and devotion throughout. Here objects are used symbolically and metamorphically to explore the artists own health Mounted on a circular bicycle gear sits a pair of scissors ,open and blunt but ready to cut , where a gilded skull sits flanked by arms each with the artists signatory amputated finger as medication repeats in cycles around the work and keys that are discarded could never unlock the pain loop.

Yasmeen Fathima Thantrey (she/her/they, b. Nottingham, 1996) is an emerging artist and recent graduate from the Royal College of Art, where she pursued her MA in Contemporary Art Practice: Public Sphere. With a passion for. exploring identity, the body, and diaspora, their art aims to navigate these complex themes through an intersectional lens. Drawing upon critical race and feminist theories, she situates her lived experiences within a broader societal context, inviting viewers to engage in a dialogue that transcends cultural boundaries.

Inside/Outside
Imaging from the artist's diagnosis MRI scan printed on a wearable lycra bodysuit.
UK Size 22-24

Becky Hoghton (she/her) is a visual artist based in the UK. Her work journeys into the complicated human condition and the functions of magic and awe in a bewildering world. Merging traditional folk practice with 21st century narratives, she imagines alternative methods of self-preservation with a special interest in health. It’s a playful exploration of the magical acts we deploy to contrive a sense of control. Formed through mythologies, language and rituals - the work exists as amuletic objects in a range of materials that give shape to the anxieties of being.

Mollitude Amuletic Helmet
Millinery felt, embroidery thread, found textiles, wire

In response to developing chronic long covid Becky became preoccupied with ideas of luck, superstition and protection - particularly the placebo role magical acts and objects play to project control in a chaotic world. Mollitude Amuletic Helmet is one of a series of soft wearable helmets constructed using traditional millinery techniques that interrogate these themes through the use of soft materials. Cocooning the brain, as protective objects they invert conventional concepts of robust self-defence and resilience, instead embracing comfort and ease as a radical path to strength. They exist within an imagined philosophy of mollitude; an alternative softer way to cope in a disconcerting time.

Tara Breuer (she/her) is a London-based creative who invites humor into conversations around difficult topics. She is interested in why people make certain decisions about their lives, and how those decisions in turn impact culture. But what happens when you don’t have control? In personal work, she explores how creative expression can facilitate an experience that reconnects the mind and body that often feel at odds with one another when living with and navigating a relationship to disability. She is interested in non-traditional forms of therapy people use to process their mental and physical feelings

I’m a Dessert Person
Cake is topped with 10 used subcutaneoeus injections

10 years since being diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, a disease where the body attacks a healthy intestine, I’m a Dessert Person is an expression of all the feelings and experiences that come with living with an autoimmune disease baked into a cake.

Baking has become a form of therapy, helping me get me out of my head and into my body. Making something with my hands forces me to stop going in circles and focus on one step forward at a time.

The cake is topped with 10 used subcutaneous injections which contained immunosuppressant medication that has to be self-injected into the outer upper thigh every two weeks.

Living with an autoimmune disease has made me feel a lack of control of my own body and a myriad of emotions. Fear of not knowing when your next flare-up can happen. Anger that your body seems to be working against you. Happiness when you’re in remission. Gratitude for a healthy body. A constant reminder of how our brain and body are connected, the sometimes fraught dialogue they have with one another, all of which is just icing on the cake when learning to live with an autoimmune disease

Owen Bennett (he/him) is a photographic artist based in London and Manchester. His work delves into the complexities of caring relationships, with a particular focus on his brother, who has cerebral palsy. Rooted in his upbringing within a familial care environment, Owen's photography investigates the socio-political implications of these dynamics and challenges conventional perceptions of non-normative ways of being. By bringing these often private and unseen interactions to the public eye, he aims to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of care in our society.

Dec 27th, 2019
Photo print in frame, A4 photo print of exhibition text.

December 27th, 2019 captures a deeply personal moment when the artist's younger brother, who has cerebral palsy, was hospitalized. The photograph included depicts the brother in a hospital bed. This work reflects on familial crisis, the challenges of caregiving, and the emotional turbulence during this time. It is a tribute to the unseen battles within families and the profound love that sustains them.

Nora Payne (she/her) is a London based artist originally from North West England. Graduating from UAL Camberwell, she uses textiles and recycled materials to express her love for maximalism. Her textile pieces are playful, comforting and often depict collages of what Payne loves most.

Homesick
Fabric scraps and old clothes, wadding

The piece considers the artists' constant and unsettling yearning for home. Originally from Burnley, Lancashire, Payne relocated to South London in 2018, where she still lives. She uses patchwork and quilting techniques to emulate the cosy, handmadeness of her most sentimental objects at her family home, using textiles from old clothes and bedding that help ease her homesickness.

Chloe Watts (she/her) is a visual artist whose work is greatly influenced by her lived experience of mental illness. Through different mediums and methods of communication, she explores often difficult emotions by facing her mental health head on, and using her practice as a methodology for processing. Her work has become well known for voicing some lesser spoken about experiences and educating its audience of the realities of living life with a mental illness. Chloe has a prolific making practice and is known amongst her peers for constantly making- something she says has benefitted her well-being greatly.

Listen to your Body
Watercolor and acrylic on paper

Listen to Your Body was originally intended to be cut up to make a publication. Created intuitively, the figure slowly began to grow and develop different biological structures. Upon completion, Chloe couldn’t bring herself to chop it up, and instead, Listen to Your Body remains as a whole body investigation of the artist’s feelings towards herself.

Amy Douglas (she/her) studied The Decorative Arts at The City and Guilds of London Art School under Flavia Irwin RA, and has an MA in printmaking from Camberwell College of Art. She is a member of RSS. Amy has a multi-disciplinary approach to her work and creates sculpture with a fragmented narrative from found and broken ceramics. Occasionally she paints to illustrate narratives that she is researching, which is currently exploring the condition endometriosis and adenomyosis as her recent experience of surgery discovered this diagnosis.

Gaudalope Melon, 2023
Acrylic and pigment on board.

A still life, a Guadalupe melon with surgical tool. Surgeons often describe removed body parts as fruit, probably to make things more “palatable” for the patient.

Phoebe Kaniewska (she/her) is a London-based multidisciplinary artist and facilitator. She facilitates workshops and art practises in a variety of settings, including galleries, settings and hospitals. She is interested in creating and caring for spaces that support, excite and interact with communities and individuals alike, using art in its most cathartic and therapeutic forms. She often draws on her experience of illness and disability to create spaces that are accessible and inclusive, and is interested in process-led work, and often works with tactile, malleable materials like metal, wax and textiles.

The Medicine Cabinet
Please open

The Medicine Cabinet explores Kaniewska's journey with illness, disability and healing. Kaniewska invites the viewer to open the medical cabinet at their own volition, revealing a heavily scented cabinet full of herbs in unlabeled glass bottles. Although each herb has healing properties, the smell of them combined is overwhelmingly pungent and not easily distingushable - it is not clear which herbs should be taken. The three pendants that hang from the inside cabinet each depict a herb that has helped Kaniewska's symptoms, presented as amulets or tokens to preserve the herbs meaning after their use.

Sakralna (alicja orzechowska) (she/they) is a polish illustrator and printmaker based in london. Alicja puts an emphasis on clear communication, critical thinking, humour and simplicity of the message and form. With their background in social activism, sakralna advocates for people’s liberation, social justice, and inclusivity in artistic and educational environments.

In addition to their creative practice, alicja is also a founder and director of outhouse gallery – a newly open creative space in camberwell.

my mom gave me cancer
Zine

This zine shows what the artist finds difficult to share, shedding light on their personal experience of being diagnosed with a new medical condition. Alicja takes this opportunity (as literally any other) to explore the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship, and how the genetically inherited breast cancer highlights the differences between these two.

This zine was made using traditional bookbinding process. It is a single copy, and it was made deliberately for the ‘poorly’ exhibition.

Taika Tontti (they/them) works three dimensionally, creating reconstructed bathroom and bedroom scenes and infrastructures like heating, guttering and draining systems. They work with materials in settings you wouldn’t think of experiencing them in. They also create sculptural work through film. Lesbian relationships and their representation in fine art is something Tontti studies through essays and interviews. Tontti finds inspiration from their relationships, mostly when they’ve felt wronged. Their sexual and gender identity plays a big role in their pieces and they find it extremely important for the audience to know that the artist’s work is through a lesbian lens.
“I was something you were trying and it made me create this space.”

I hope that your mum remembers us together in our matching outfits and our silly theatre plays
Metal wire, shoji paper, thread, candle, pencil, found frame

Quote from the letter: ”I have finally created a memorial for you. I have written you a letter and lit up a candle.”

This work was created as a memorial for my childhood bestfriend who lost the battle with cancer.

The friendship was difficult and that created this question of who to miss and who to forget but I could not forget.

Heather Fiona Martin (she/her) generally makes 2D work including mixed media stitched mono prints, wet felted paintings, small tapestry, sometimes combined together. That being said when it feels right she’ll turn to 3D. Starting points tend to be what might be described as the residue of lived experiences and their memories.

A descendant of Scottish weavers, with a background in tailoring followed by Textiles at Goldsmiths College, University of London process is important as are materials. She often repurposes varied remnants including fibres harvested from clothing, paperwork and hair. Growing up in Lincoln Heather now lives and works in London. She most recently exhibited in Extempore 2024, at Tension Gallery, Penge

Snap, Crackle 1
Cyanotype with collaged medical letter, silk thread and pins

For the artist on a micro level a deeply personal work relating to a variety of lung conditions she lives with. To ensure her lungs don’t deteriorate any further and are relatively silent - wheeze and crackle free - she uses (is meant to use) a saline nebuliser, twice daily. But she’s not good at routine and it is usually a wheeze or the sense of a crackle that reminds her of the hidden harm not using the nebuliser is causing.

On a macro level the simplified diagram of her main airways appear to be a dead tree, perhaps a symbol of our poorly word.

Eloise Halban-Taylor is a 13-year-old artist from Cambridge. She paints with multiple media, often exploring combinations of oils; pastels; acrylics and textiles.

In her own words: “Art has always been a safe place for me. When I paint my mind wonders and nothing else seems important.

Painting is my way of expression and escaping reality.

When I paint or sketch I process my feelings and release them onto the canvas. I can look back at my art and remember the way I felt when I painted it.

My struggle with an Eating Disorder has caused me to feel alone. Some of my relationships with friends have fallen apart. I’ve been isolated from life as a normal teenager.

Art helps me when words can’t. Like another language.

When Life gives you Lemons
Oil on canvas painted over pasted layers of linen

Youyu Wu (she/her) is an artist who make works in a wide range of mediums, such as drawing, sculpture, and multimedia. The latest idea she exploring is to use herself as a research method – by investigating the interaction between her inner world and the outside world and then bringing the work to life. This has led her to make works that invite audiences to participate. She is interested in how the audience might interact with the work and how the relationship between the work and the audience changes in different settings. She try to understand what the work has really conveyed from the audience’s viewpoint and reflect on this in her subsequent creations.

Pillow
Silicon, cotton, thread

The most recent work she is developing is to show her own perception of how to cope with mental illness and physical life, and the work can be seen as her personal solution to this unresolved question that may be hidden in everyone’s daily life.

She hope that the work could provide a therapeutic experience for audiences and create a weird but comfortable place to stay and rest.

George Murphy (they/them) is a self-taught printmaker and socially engaged artist/facilitator. They initially started printmaking during a long period of illness so that people would stop telling them to get a hobby, and have been doing it ever since. Their work commonly explores themes of community, protest, chronic illness, neurodiversity and gender/queerness. Most of their work is a bit wonky and that is how they like it. Inseparable from their individual practice, they are passionate about creating art collaboratively and have facilitated participatory projects in a range of community settings.

Dice for rest
Fabric cube dice (please pick up!)

This piece was created as a gift for a fellow disabled artist and friend at the end of an alternative arts education program called Into The Wild. The dice playfully explores the concept of rest and barriers to it. Some sides highlight how the current capitalist system, with its norms and systems, doesn't enable those who are disabled, sick and neurodivergent to rest in the way they need. While attempting not to replicate toxic wellness culture, which often promotes self-care practices not accessible to many, other sides highlight more practical ways the artist tries to find snippets of rest whilst living with multiple chronic illnesses.

The dice is hand printed on fabric from one of the artist's pillow cases.

Please feel free to roll the dice.

Rita Chamberlain (she/her) is an artist and writer. She has an interest in ideas surrounding, impression, the fragility of a moment and the elusive nature of experience. Writing, specifically creative 'non-fiction', acts as a device to deepen her philosophy around the act of painting. Rita holds a Masters in Writing from the Royal College of Art and graduated with a First Class Hons. BA in Painting from UAL, Wimbledon College of Art.

Slow Turning Sunlight
Oil sticks and oil paint on unprimed linen

Slow Turning Sunlight is a response to The Yellow Wallpaper by Perkins Gilman, the protagonist is locked in a room to cure her melancholy. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper, seeing something or someone trapped in the pattern. Yellow came to represent the artists own mental health struggles. Yellow can symbolize bodily sickness, it is bile, puss, vomit, and an unwell complexion, it is nauseating. Though in stark contrast yellow is sunshine, brightness, and summer. Mental health is a journey that ebbs and flows, within moments of poor mental health there are reminders of hope. How lucky one is to see the beautiful yellows; the anxiety will lessen for a moment until it does not. The linen is unprimed, allowing the material to breathe, grow and shrink.

Nina Maria (She/Her) is a London and Austrian-based photographic and multidisciplinary artist of Austrian origin (b.1998). She graduated in Documentary Photography BA from the University of Arts London in 2021. Her practice is predominantly concerned with vulnerable topics around mental health, womanhood, body image, sexuality, lens-based memory representation and natural landscapes. Nina uses mainly alternative processes such as super 8mm film and analog imagery and family archives. She is Co-Organizer of Fail Better Talks.’

about wintering’ part 1 +2

Nina was learning about the word ‘wintering’ through Katherine May’s book when she started to pick up her Super8 camera, trying to reflect on time, the seasonal changes and how ‘wintering’ comes and goes regardless of the seasons. Part 1 (2023) was the first chapter of an ongoing series that is about Nina’s own experience with mental health and losing sense of time.

Part 2 (2024) was shot exactly one year later. She was about to get confronted with another loss of a loved one, which made her question when and why ‘wintering’ might befall us. Therefore, Part 2 is about the season of collective grieving and the places we find ourselves in regardless of the destination on earth.

Gracie Bevan (she/her), a Brighton-based artist and researcher, keeps her methods simple and accessible as she investigates fragmented moments of a wider experience. She formulates connections in her practice through the use of language, reflecting on how conversation bridges the gap between the external and internal, emotion and experience, the self and other, artist and practice. By using language, she attempts to access an unspoken feeling within herself that emerges when exploring her visual worlds. Wholly centred in the auto/biographical, Gracie’s practice culminates in visceral responses spanning moving image, textiles, and printmaking.

Tell Me About Myself is a conversation between Gracie and her partner. Subject and artist, the sick and the carer. The conversation evolved through the investigation of Elle’s memories as a carer and partner, from a time Gracie doesn’t fully remember. Neither ignoring nor describing the events that happened they tiptoe around the experience of illness and figuring out how love continues to get us through. Interjected with laughter, Tell Me About Myself intimately explores themes of care, fear, memory and love.

Jameisha Prescod (they/them) FRSA is an artist-filmmaker and writer from South London. Specialising in documentary, experimental film, video journalism and immersive visual art, they are driven by authentic storytelling with a thematic focus on disability, illness, culture and identity.

Jameisha is also the founder and creative director of You Look Okay To Me, the online space for chronic illness. Since the project’s inception, the community has grown to over 40,000 online across all social platforms.

Recent exhibitions/shows include Biennale Arte (2024), Bloc Billboard (2024) and the Deptford Literature Festival (2024).

On Black Pain

On Black Pain is a short essay film exploring the experiences of three Black people living with chronic pain. Their experiences are weaved together through a poetic voice-over which acknowledges the colonial history of Western medicine.

On Black Pain is a reflection on the past, present and future of Black pain. It's a piece that archives Black experiences with physical pain allowing the film’s subjects to express their pain in their own words, something which was not possible for our ancestors.

Rezan Kutlu (she/her) captures a poignant moment from her life: the hours before a life-altering accident left her paralysed. Adorned in the same outfit she wore that fateful day, she gazes at her wheelchair's reflection in the mirror, symbolising a transition from the past to an uncertain future. Kutlu's portrayal invites empathy as she navigates the complexities of her new reality. Before the tragedy, she embraced various hobbies and passions, including belly dancing, singing, and photography. Kutlu's art is a medium to share her journey, fostering awareness and understanding.

Rezan Kutlu, born in London and of Turkish-Kurdish descent, explores themes of personal transformation in her art. Following a life-altering car accident in August 2022, which left her paralysed, Kutlu redirected her aspirations. Despite initial plans to pursue Interior Design at NUA in Norwich, she adapted to her new circumstances, eventually enrolling in Fine Art Mixed Media BA at the University of Westminster. Through her work, Kutlu navigates the complexities of her changed identity and shares her journey of resilience and adaptation.

Aaron Rheeder (n/a). Emerging out of the thick haze of the terminally online, pathetically resigning themselves to the whims of gravity, the goo_romancers are a multidisciplinary collective consisting of: sMyL0r :) - UbiRoi - MoloToff - Dire Rhetoric -DP SKWEEKY - Heavi Pettin’ - Zer0 C00l - Frank BigBux - Baby Sniffer - Greml0r - Soozin Oil - Porkly Scratchum & Dermot 0’Logical

Infinite Regress // Wishing Well

Photogrammetric scan of a defunct water source, located on the vestiges of the now demolished Thames Tradesmen's Rowing Club, with a taurus-shaped cam-track tacked and subsequently manipulated to the lumpy contours of the scan's geometry. Supplemented by an audio component made by taking on-site field recordings, breaking them up into little chunks and feeding them into Richard D. James' nifty AI sampling software, where they were asked to interpret and mimic a target .wav file that was also created by on-site field recordings, but this time the audio was specifically from a UHF radio, spliced into a found TV antenna via an SMA Coaxial (for those that care), tuned into various weather satellites and pirate radio stations. After which, AI then interprets the radio recordings as spoken word, to which it was then put into a final AI text-to-speech programme at which point we go back to the original field recordings, which as said earlier, had the fun job of mimicking all of that. Solve et coagula yada yada…