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Residency at
Rampton High Secure
Hospital
​
April - June 2015
​
supported by Primary, Anxiety Arts
This project was set up to
investigate ...
​
...the legacy of the artist, Ian Breakwell's placement at Rampton High Secure Hospital in the 1970s when he was placed there by the Artist's Placement Group (APG). I intended to map the movement of significant ideas, conflicts and decisions involved in his intervention there, which led to a report (still classified under the Official Secrets Act). On not being able to release or exhibit the report Breakwell collaborated with Yorkshire Television to produce a TV programme 'Secret Hospital' – this documentary lead directly to several years of police presence at Rampton, prosecutions and reorganisation. I intended to look into what impact can be felt today, if any, of Breakwell's intervention. I am interested in the function of Rampton as a symbolic space, as a container for fractured psyches, how it functions for those both within and without it and how ideas about the space have shifted.
The project included a period of research at the Tate Archive
Interesting overview of APG's work in Frieze.
Book chapter by David Harding which discusses the origins of the 'artist in residence' - that it was an effort by the Arts Council to control and sanitise what APG were attempting to do.
When you contrast the work and attitudes of the APG to arts practice of today it makes one feel very un-radical.
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