Bluecoat Liverpool

In this exhibition space, eight different creative artists have worked with Belong, a dementia care operator in Liverpool by holding several art sessions alongside people with dementia to create Where the Arts Belong: Making Sense (Of It All) as well as Suki Chan’s CONSCIOUS, a multi-platform project.

Initially, you assume that the work is about people suffering from dementia, however that is not the case. Even though they have created work about dementia, this exhibition is about the creative potential of those that are living with dementia and realise that they are creative and artistic people, it doesn’t matter what age you are, anyone can do artistic activities that enrich life (Bluecoat Liverpool, 2022).

The research for this project initially started in 2019, when the artists worked with Belong residents and had them engage with a few art forms, like dance, sound art, sculpture, and storytelling then during lockdown Belong expanded this project into its community care area and those customers were able to participate via video call to the artists. The exhibition itself demonstrated these sessions and allowed visitors to discover the outcomes of the project using a programme of talks and events with the artists (Rice, 2022).

When you walk into this exhibition space it is separated into individual rooms, each one has a different story talking about the unique journeys that people go on with dementia, whether it be a person who has it or someone that is touched by it. The first room is rather dark as if in an old school cinema, Chan created a film, Memory (2019) whereby she used images of geological terrain; she feels Memory is a juxtaposition between a human's life and geological time. In the film a man talks over images of views from an aeroplane of the land below and he talks of the memories he had and how he wanted to become a pilot. This work really makes you think; you spend your whole life making and gaining memories and then towards the end, you start to forget things and things start to unravel, something which people with dementia know very well. Chan went on a journey to discover not only what it was like for people living with dementia but also what it was like for those caring for people with dementia.

In Hallucinations (2020) Chan created another film that was shown in a room laid out like a care home, so much so it even had the scents reminiscent of a care home, the room was very beige and had walkers and wheelchairs littered around it, this gives you a sensory experience whilst making you feel warm, the film played across screens again showing people with dementia talking about their personal experiences.

Fog in My Head (2022) is displayed in a room set out like a living room and features a lady who talks very coherently about vascular dementia the film also shows bees buzzing around a beehive, this symbolises the craziness that is going on in the brain with memories bouncing around. Chan wanted this work to make people think about the future and what happens when we start to lose aspects of our own minds or bodies and how we can support those people that are losing those things (Bluecoat Liverpool, 2022).

Rice, E., 2022. New exhibit about living with dementia opens after three years. [online] Liverpool Echo. Available at: <https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/new-exhibit-living-dementia-opens-23464764> [Accessed 4 May 2022].

Bluecoat Liverpool. 2022. Suki Chan: CONSCIOUS. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSjZTwfpZkk> [Accessed 4 May 2022].

Bluecoat Liverpool, 2022. Where the Arts Belong: Making Sense (Of It All). [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgNdcLSpIXQ> [Accessed 4 May 2022].