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rampton kathryn cooper for web_edited.jp

Residency at

Rampton High Secure

Hospital

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April - June 2015

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supported by Primary, Anxiety Arts

This project was set up to

investigate ...

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...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.

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