These past few months, I've had the incredible privilege of becoming a health researcher bringing together my experiences of living with a long term mental health condition, mindful art facilitation and storytelling to engage the community of Walworth. Over 10 workshops, I have been holding space for conversations of health, wellbeing, joy and safety and archiving responses of the participants in a quilt that is vibrating with healing strategies and wisdom. This is one research strand that informs Pembroke House's wider strategy to support the community to articulate and co-create their social model for health in collaboration with Healing Justice London (HJL) Justice London.
I am not a quilt maker! I designed this project to remove my "authority" as an artist researcher, encourage all forms of expression, include all abilities, ages and to practice listening, respect and communication. We decided to call it "Weaving Interdependence" as our individual health is inextricably bound in our collective health.
Phenomenal artist Jacob V Joyce also led a research workshop programme, called "Collective Remedies" and they held space for grief, healing and shared their thought process!