PATIENTS IS KEY, 2018
Exhibited as part of What’s Going On Upstairs Installation
A key safe overfilled with keys with multi-coloured tags was hanging in the office of an eating disorder clinic and became the inspiration for Patients is Key. In this artwork, each tag has hand stitched words which represent being both a patient and a carer within the healthcare system. The coloured tags have been laid out in the same format as a Body Mass Index chart.
The keys represent the physicality of the patient being locked into a clinic for their safety, and also being locked into the mental torture of an eating disorder.
At Death’s Door
Magnetic noticeboard on front of key safe with photographs of young people who have lost their lives due to anorexia nervosa…models, a gymnast, a student, singers, and an author. The butterfly magnets had been found abandoned in a bedroom of an eating disorder clinic.
Measurement: 35cm x 55cm x 9cm
Process: Hand stitch
Materials: Textile, silk threads, key tags, keys, key safe, photographs, magnets
Exhibited in:
What’s Going On Upstairs, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, London (2018)
What’s Going On Upstairs, The Knitting & Stitching Show, The RDS, Simmonscourt, Dublin (2018)
What’s Going On Upstairs, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Convention Centre, Harrogate (2018)
14th International London Eating Disorders Conference, QEII Centre, Westminster (2019)
Image and Narrative: Illness, Recovery, Change at The University of Nottingham (A sample collection of key tags) (2019)
East Midlands Mental Health Service Innovators Conference, First Steps, University of Derby (A sample collection of key tags) (2019)