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Stories

  • Article

A reflection on art in a mental hospital

Artist Beth Hopkins explains how she used her experience of researching the Adamson Collection to create an embroidered wall hanging.

  • Article

Picturing mental health

Ron Hampshire created artworks while resident at Netherne psychiatric hospital. What can we learn from them?

  • Article

Reversing the psychiatric gaze

Nineteenth-century psychiatrists were keen to categorise their patients’ illnesses reductively – by their physical appearance. But we can see a far more complex picture of mental distress, revealed by those patients able to express their inner worlds in art.

  • Article

Mary Bishop and the surveillant gaze

Writer and artist Rose Ruane explores the paintings of Mary Bishop, created during a 30-year stay in a psychiatric hospital, which speak of constant medical surveillance and censorious self-examination.

All stories (4)

Images

  • Adamson's chiropodist plaque
  • Horatio George Adamson. Photograph by Lafayette Ltd.
  • Horatio George Adamson. Photograph by Lafayette Ltd.
  • A water meter introduced by William Siemens and Joseph Adamson, 1851-1867. Photograph, ca. 1936.
  • An anguished figure in a red aureole, holding a curved knife. Watercolour by M. Bishop, 1967.
  • An anguished figure in a red aureole, holding a curved knife. Watercolour by M. Bishop, 1967.
  • A person seated cross-legged with head bowed. Watercolour by M. Bishop, 1955.
  • A person seated cross-legged with head bowed. Watercolour by M. Bishop, 1955.
  • A walking man has his head bitten off by a colossal red mouth. Watercolour by M. Bishop, 1966.
  • A walking man has his head bitten off by a colossal red mouth. Watercolour by M. Bishop, 1966.
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Catalogue

All works (2.5K)