I AM DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE MY FIRST SOLO SHOW, RITUALS AND PORTALS, SEPTEMBER 19TH AND 20TH, TO RAISE FUNDS FOR TUITION FEES IN MSC CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE DEMENTIA HUB WEST BERKSHIRE

Details

Date, Time – Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th September, 10am – 4pm

Address – The Milking Parlour, Monksmead Farm, Upper Woolhampton, Berkshire, RG7 5TA

Contact – samuel.raphael8@icloud.com, 07729622399

I am currently in the embryonic stages of a journey towards a career in clinical psychology. As such, I will be starting an MSc in Clinical Mental Health Sciences at UCL in September. This exhibition is being held to raise funds to pay for my tuition fees and help facilitate this exciting new adventure that is personally deeply meaningful. Of course, this would simply not be possible without our community. Therefore, there will also be a fundraiser for the Dementia Hub West Berkshire, a charity doing incredible work in creating a community to transform local dementia support and care. There will be a raffle for one of my paintings in the show with tickets being sold for £10, an amazing chance to win an original painting at a low cost and support a meaningful cause. All proceeds from the raffle will go to the Dementia Hub.

Artist’s Statement

As psychology edges closer towards that of the natural sciences in its philosophy and application, psychology and art might be construed as existing on opposite ends of an analytical – creative spectrum. I believe it is for this very reason that art, be it visual art, music, or literature, has the potential to be so significant in the psychology professions.

Indeed, in the modern climate of “medicalisation” of mental health – assessment, diagnosis, medication – what has stayed inherent to the human condition is the desire to make meaning of our suffering by telling stories and making art, thus transcending some of the absurdity of existence by instilling life with beauty, meaning and purpose.

The practice of psychology and psychiatry can be guilty of overlooking this fundamental drive. The rejection of this approach for a more medical model of mental health focused on classification and cure quietly dissolves our ability to embody or integrate the meaning that we derive from the narratives we tell about our lives and what has happened to us. It reorients the focus of psychological therapy towards treatment of a disease akin to a malignant growth you wish to banish, rather than a more compassionate focus on the person which would incorporate an integration of life events, trauma and personal narratives into a more holistic and individuated identity.

I believe art, story, conversation, the pursuit of meaning, are irrevocably entangled in this journey of creating a more narrative understanding of psychological suffering. It is an iterative process rather than a direct cure, reflected in the perennial adventure of what it means to go through the process of making or appreciating art. Because it is always a process:

“The end of a melody is not its goal” – Nietzsche

I believe this process is always more enlightening when shared. Whether it is shared in, conversation, activity, or simply in mutual presence, these are the Rituals we collectively partake in which ground our sense of purpose. Art, then, in all its forms, is a shared Portal to a more visceral understanding of our minds and the world.

“Through the eyes of a real friendship an individual is larger than their everyday actions” – David Whyte

It is community which underscores the power of art for its facilitation of shared experience. The Dementia Hub West Berkshire is charity in our community with a significant impact in this regard, which is why I am delighted to be supporting them. Through the corrosion of memory, dementia erodes the ability to derive a narrative understanding of life, trauma, social roles, and identity, and so is intimately tied in with the psychological motivations of  of the show.

I Look forward to seeing you there.