A Thousand Paper Cranes - Week 3

Today is World Mental Health Day, the hospital entrance is filled with stalls and staff raising awareness about mental health needs and services as well as promoting open discussions about mental health problems. World Mental Health Day was first celebrated in 1992 and is held on 10 October each year to raise public awareness about mental health issues across the globe.

For our session today Rozi and I reshuffle the dining room layout and push everything to the sides, creating a large open space on the floor that we cover with giant paper and stretch it up the wall. Today the humble OHP will help us transform the dining room into something different which an emphasis on process.

We bring coloured acetates, translucent objects, lenses, mark making tools, sequins, periscopes, kaleidoscopes, net and feathers.

We explore the process of sprinkling, scattering, layering, stacking the items onto the OHP, which are projected large onto the paper in a magnificent array of rainbow hues. On the paper we trace and follow casted shapes and lines with thick graphite and coloured felts, crease and bend the paper to create undulating 3D landscapes spreading across the floor. The surface of the paper is changing, growing infront of our eyes and we are on the floor making it happen, each mark is a little bit of us. The tiniest adjustment on the OHP has dramatic shifting effects on the wall. We take it in turns to be composer, drawer and photographer.

With an ipad we explore ways of capturing the colours and texture of the walls and floor through different settings on the camera. What kind of things are we looking at through the lens? Layers, colour, texture, juicy rainbows, light and shadow, soft edges, hard clear lines, cross overs, intricate close ups, far reaching landscapes.

The OTs and other ward staff join in with the photography too. We’ll be using these photographic images in future sessions together.

One of the ladies compared looking into the OHP like a witch’s cauldron

“I feel like a witch casting a spell!Throwing things into my cauldron.”

We watch the wall change, a spell emerging of sprinkled stars and colour!

To finish, we create fixed compositions by heating textures between laminating sheets, which create surprising layered effects. We left the dining room windows filled with colour and texture.

Things that emerged from the session:

·       There was no perfect solution or image

·       We allowed ourselves to think big

·       We let go of negative thoughts

·       We put our whole body into an immersive space

·       We embraced the accidental discoveries

·       It allowed us to be curious

·       We found our own way in – either through drawing on the floor, photographing or rearranging the OHP composition, or just watching the changes happening

·       We tried something different, which might be working low on the floor or using an ipad

·       We came together as a group to share an experience

·       Our minds were focussed on the present and not worrying about the future

Bryony