By the Assistance of Letters the Memory of Past Things is Preserved
- Artist:
- Type: Print
- Medium: Giclee
- Production Date: 2015
- Description: Based on sample texts illustrating some of the extraordinary penmanship to be found within the patients' letters, held in the records of Stirling District Asylum. In the years between 1906-1911, hundreds of people entered Stirling District Asylum for treatment and care. The breadth of their occupations indicates the indiscriminate nature of mental ill health but also reflects a long gone industrial and arable heritage, within which the former Bellsdyke Hospital grounds were set. This work was donated after the exhibition 'Staring at the Ceiling Looking at the Stars' (Spring 2016, Pathfoot Building), which was created by the artist working in collaboration with a group of in-patients and staff at Bellsdyke Hospital in Stenhousemuir. Over the past year the group has delved into the case notes, patients‘ letters and admission ledgers of the Stirling District Asylum Archive to explore the identities of asylum patients from 1906-14 and to create a new ‘archive‘ in which the patient‘s voice is properly heard and their own experience is valued in the way we would hope and expect today.
www.staringattheceilinglookingatthestars.wordpress.com - Dimensions: 105cm (H) x 150cm (W)
- Digital Copy:A digital copy exists.
- Location: Store
- Accession Number: 2016.8
- Contact: University of Stirling Art Collection
