Ship of Fools

Making my own mental health hospital

legs dangling from under a tree

A self-initiated anti-section action, residency and mental creative space running from 10/05/11 until 07/06/11.

Hackney, London.

May/June 2011.

Anticipating a major decline in my mental health but wishing to avoid admission to an acute mental health hosptial, in May 2011 I opened my own Asylum, wrote my own mental health act and detained myself under its rules. During this period artists and non artists visited and I made work with these people but also on my own.

Collaborator/Producer Sophie Nathan. Supported by Arts Council.

“The Ship of Fools is a creative, thoughtful and thought-provoking filmic meditation on suicidal states of mind. An intensely moving piece of work, it is at turns darkly humorous and shocking; made with an authenticity and a desire to think about how more effective society could be in supporting individuals in the throes of extreme states of mental distress.”

Review in Disability Arts Online 

Collaborative work.

Duvet intervention with Sue Keen.

Video and intervention with Tom Scullion.

Suicide performance idea with Clare Bundell-Jones.

Priest Complaints Commission with Reverand Janet Ashton.

Jump video with Vanessa Barlett.

Solo Work.

Speed Camera Kids.

Barking Mad.

Please don’t feed the pigs.

Paradise Lost.

Metropolitan Lice.

Your Enthusiasm.

Documentation.

Ship of Fools now exists as a 23 minute video diary that is presented live or as a video installation.

Venues

  • James Leadbitter in sunglasses wearing a t-shirt with the slogan 'I went mental and all I got was this lousy t-shirt'
  • grey t-shirt with the slogan 'Psychiatrist tried to make me go to nuthouse. And I said no no no....'
  • 8 small string nooses hang from in between green park railings
  • a man in a shirt, tie and waistcoat wearing a mask of his own face
  • 'your enthusiasm' hand written on a curb
  • Towera sign on railings opposite a police station altered to read 'Please Do Not Feed the Pigs'
  • A white duvet on the grass in a park with a figure underneath, gold feet stick out and a gold hand clutching a message in a bottle
  • looking through a letterbox to see bare brick walls and lush green foliage
  • The outside of a letterbox which has been spray painted gold with the words 'paradise lost' stencilled out
  • a grubby shuttered shop front with a letterbox that has been spray painted gold and the words 'paradise lost' stencilled in
  • camera encased in cardboard and foam tied together with cable ties
  • female priest with loud hailer standing next to a sign that says 'Priest complaints commission'
  • outside Haggerston and Queensbridge Wards police station adapted to read 'Metropolitan Lice'
  • James Leadbitter on stage presenting in front of a large screen
  • James Leadbitter on stage talking with a large screen behind him showing the title 'Ship of Fools'
  • James Leadbitter on stage presenting infront of a large screen
  • legs dangling from under a tree
  • vacuum cleaner's Mental Health Act 2011
  • a tree with bark peeled off and the words Barking Mad carved into the wood underneath