The mental health strike. A strike that I posited happened in an alternate reality in late January (the week always desrcibed as the most depressing) in 2018.
We do live in a very different reality now, though. A very unexpected one, still confused and defined by a vague sense of dislocation, after a pandemic nobody could have forseen back then. The geopolitical and national political climate seem far worse, partly due to confusion and dislocation within which they operate.
The Mental Health Strike was a ‘what if’ event – just a small project for an interim show as a mature Ma student in Leeds.
What if there was a collective consensus that contemporary reality, in all the variable life positions one may find themselves in, was becoming totally incompatible with living mentally well? Well, this was the seed, the interstition I was playfully trying to plant.
The installation I created was centred around The audio piece ‘M.H.S Sunscreen ’18’, which I created with friend, fellow-artist-led collective member, and music composer Ben Parker.
It was thematically based on Baz Lurhmann’s unexpected 1999 pop song hit ‘Everybody’s got to wear sunscreen’, which hit a nerve, perhaps because it presciently spotted something that would the so defining of the imminent next century, the rise of mental ill-health, emotional distress as a great social problem.
Because it wasn’t a big project I neglect to see it as one of the best projects I’ve worked on. Not only that, but this project kicked started possibly one of the most fruitful times I’ve had artistically. So I look back 6 years to see how I wish to proceed this year: that the faith that emanates from this project is not a done deal. It’s time to believe things can work out well once more.
John B Ledger 