eMotion at the Tate Modern

Submissions are now closed for eMotion

In 2016 we created our Relationship Map for Mental Health Awareness Week. It was a large scale artwork that charted people's life connections using the London Tube map. After its success we're back in 2019 with a new interactive map that will be exhibited at the Tate Modern from 11th-16th June. It will be part of the Ideas in Motion: borders, bodies, and the universe exhibition at the Tate Modern, Blavatnik Building, Level 5, Bankside, London SE1 9TG.

More info at https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/tate-exchange/workshop/ideas-motion-borders-bodies-and-universe

Our artwork is eMotion: Emotional Transitions in Healthcare. Ill-health requires us to make transitions: to move emotionally, spiritually, socially, physically. We adjust from being 'healthy' to being 'ill', from ‘independence’ to ‘dependence’ and back again. The project highlights the joys and fear of impermanence, of the changes that occur every second, minute and hour of our lives. It embraces movement as normal, as part of the flow of life – something that should neither be resisted nor forced. 

We’ve built a huge interactive floor map, in the style of a tube map, which has ‘end stations’ labelled with key points of ‘stasis’. The ‘station stops’ in between are open for people to explore how they navigate these transitions. We would like your help in creating a map so that visitors at the Tate can navigate a path along these routes of transition. 

Please contribute your words below and be part of the exhibit. Your name will be printed on the map and exhibited at the Tate Modern.

We have nine “lines” in our eMotion map, each starting and finishing with people, places or things that you might move between during your life:

Health – Illness

Dependence – Independence

Home – Hospital

Life – Death 

Young – Old 

Hope – Fear

Certainty – Uncertainty

Me - You

Doctor - Patient

There are three blank “stops” for each line. We want you to fill in the blank stops for as many lines as you want, which best sum up how you connect these concepts. Write a title or name (no longer than 4 words) that describes each stop on your journey. For example: what does it feel like to be in the middle between Hope to Fear, or closer to Hope, or closer to Fear. You could write something like: Hope – Last Minute Corner – First Game of Season – One Nil Up – Fear.

We'll be working with Harvey Wells, Kevin Acott and the team at 

Queen Mary University of London

Relationship Map 2016

Art of Caring 2019 opens at St George's Hospital

The Art of Caring opened today at St George's Hospital in Tooting, London. It features over 250 artworks and wool words on the subject of Care and Caring. The exhibition, now in its 5th year, helps celebrate International Nurses Day on the 12th May. This year’s theme is ‘Health for All’. It includes the work of creative people of all ages, from artists to nurses, and from people who have experience of being a carer  and/or a service user.

You can find the exhibition on the First Floor, Lanesborough Wing, (Outside Ingredients Restaurant) at St George’s Hospital, London, SW17 0QT. The work will be on the walls from 10th May - 14th June 2019 so please come along and have a look. You can find all the artists exhibiting on our ARTISTS page.

You can view more photos HERE.

This year we asked nursing students at Kingston University and St George's University of London to come up with one word that they felt reflected the inspirational work done by the charity Nurse Reaching Out. They wrote their chosen word in wool, in their chosen language, reflecting the diversity of the students and the charity - reflecting  this years International Nurse Day theme: a truly inclusive “Health For All.”

Nurse Reaching Out founder Michelle Grainger visited Uganda in 2007 with colleagues and was moved to do something more after seeing how pregnant women were unable to access the hospital care they needed unless they bought their own soap, string and a razor - which they couldn’t afford. NRO now provides these items in their maternity packs and the maternal death rate has fallen as a result. They also joined forces with the "Fish and chip baby’ initiative - a term coined after babies born in the poorest areas of Africa were found wrapped in newspaper to keep warm. The mother’s had no clothes for their tiny newborns,  leaving hospital with them still wrapped in the newspaper and with reduced hopes of survival. A network was established by Michelle that utilises the knitting skills of volunteers from around the UK and beyond. NRO now sends these knitted items to Ugandan health care colleagues for those Mum’s and babies in need.  www.nursesreachingout.org

Thank you to Bryan Benge, Alban Low, Dean Reddick and Jackie Belle who helped install the exhibition. Thank you to all the staff at St George's who have already sent us messages of support.

Kindly supported by Kingston University and St George's,  University of London