Image: Wish You Were Here 1. Le Cake Walk: Rob This England Heather Agyepong
A Picture of Health is a group exhibition of eleven contemporary women photographers from The Hyman Collection who have responded to subjects of health and wellbeing. Featuring autobiographical perspectives to social commentaries on wider society, the exhibition touches upon a variety of timely subjects, as those throughout the world are united by the effects of the current global pandemic.
Exploring what lies behind the camera’s exposing eye the exhibition explores themes of trauma, from physical to psychological effects; environment, asking how the people we live with and the places in which we live affect our health and wellbeing; and care, considering the dynamics between the carer and those that are cared for.
Including work by Heather Agyepong, Sonia Boyce, Eliza Hatch, Susan Hiller, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Anna Fox, Rosy Martin (in collaboration with Verity Welstead), Polly Penrose, Jo Spence, and Paloma Tendero, A Picture of Health aims to de-stigmatise subjects around mental health and create an environment in which people can have open conversations about their wellbeing. It also weaves in the voices and experiences of local people with lived experiences of mental health.
Alongside A Picture of Health is ‘Look at this skin… it keeps changing’, an Artists’ film programme documenting a range of experiences of wellness, recovery, and ageing by artists including Anna Fox, Helen Petts, Vicky Smith and Bristol based mental health charity, Many Minds.
About the Exhibition
The exhibition and its accompanying programme have been co-curated by creativeShift CIC and Fresh Arts, Bristol’s leading organisations for providing creative wellbeing activities to adults who are experiencing or are vulnerable to isolation and mental health challenges.
Arnolfini is working with Fresh Arts, an arts programme for North Bristol NHS Trust whose vision is to harness the power of creativity and the arts to make a positive difference to our patients, visitors and staff. Their high quality, collaborative and engaging arts programme boosts health and wellbeing and puts the hospital at the heart of its communities. For details of the resources available please visit www.nbt.nhs.uk/fresh-arts
We would like visitors to be aware that the artworks in A Picture of Health address some important issues surrounding mental health and wellbeing including:
Psychological and physical trauma / Sexual harassment / Hereditary disease / Degenerative disorder / Dementia / and Cancer.
About The Hyman Collection
The Hyman Collection is the private collection of Claire and James Hyman, which began in 1996 and consists of over three thousand artworks, from across the world, in a variety of media. In the last fifteen years the collection has focused on international photography, from its origins to the present. In particular, the Hyman Collection seeks to support and promote British photography through acquisitions, commissions, loans and philanthropy. The collection includes artists working in photography as well as documentary, historic and contemporary photographs. It has an equal number of works by male and female artists and seeks, especially, to support the work of contemporary women photographers. In 2020 The Hyman Foundation was set up to support photography in Britain through a variety of philanthropic ventures.
With thanks for their support to
and sponsor of A Picture of Health,
Explore A Picture of Health Online
Explore the exhibition in a variety of ways…
WATCH our exhibition film which we are proud to present as part of a collaboration with Rising Arts Agency, a community of young creatives aged 16 – 30 at all stages of their careers. Rising’s Young Creative, Manoel Akure’s walkthrough film is the second in a series of commissions from Rising Arts talented pool of artists. For more of Manoel’s work, please visit www.blouhaus.com
WATCH films from our artist film programme ‘Look at this skin… it keeps changing’ –
WATCH artist Heather Agyepong in conversation with Arnolfini’s Engagement Producer Keiko Higashi as part of Arnolfini and UWE’s Art in the City international artist talks programme.
WATCH. Wellbeing vox pop brings together a range of Artists and UWE Bristol academics drawn from different disciplines who were invited to respond to the subject of wellbeing during the start of 2021. Contributions include: Jessie Edwards-Thomas, Raquel Meseguer, Heather Agyepong, Anna Fox, Eliza Hatch, Paloma Tendero and Rosy Martin.
LOOK at works in the exhibition with our slideshow…
All images courtesy of The Hyman Collection www.britishphotography.org
All other images Installation Photography by Lisa Whiting for Arnolfini, 2020.
LISTEN. Audio descriptions of each of the works in the exhibition (accompanied by images) as well as listening to audio versions of our interpretation texts (including texts about each artist and their practice).
READ our Gallery Guide
CREATE with our Family Guide designed for families with primary school age children
CREATE with free online tutorials from Let’s Make Art to make your own artwork inspired by the exhibition, designed for families and children.
We also have free drawing resources designed for all ages by UWE drawing and print students (as part of The Big Draw campaign) who worked throughout the Autumn 2020 term to design a range of creative activities inspired by our current exhibitions. You can download these below to try at home, or pick up a copy in the gallery when we are open.
VISIT our What’s On pages to find out more about family events, workshops, talks and films that accompany this exhibition, including online activities arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/ and our wellbeing workshops designed and delivered by our friends at Rising Arts Agency