Interpretation, Installation
client: out of sight, out of mind,
scottish mental health arts festival
Role: designer
In 2017, myself and two other designers were commissioned to create promotional installations for the Out of Sight Out of Mind exhibition at Summerhall in Edinburgh. The exhibition occurs each year and is a part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. It showcases artworks that have been created by people who have had experience with mental health problems.
Our aim was to create more awareness for the exhibition through the design and creation of engaging city-based installations. These installations functioned as advertisements for the festival, whilst also reflecting the artistic nature of the exhibition. The poetry umbrella was conceived to provoke and accommodate interaction with the public; to generate a sense of intimacy which allows for reflection. Poems were played through speakers on a loop, inviting those who pass to listen to the poet’s words. The intimacy and profundity of these little inconsequential spaces provided a safe area to engage with poems that celebrate life, whilst deeply addressing issues such as of love, addiction, depression, and mental well-being. To hear the poems, passers-by had to enter into the umbrella space and experience the intimacy.
The umbrellas were installed in three busy parts of the city and a fourth was installed outside of the exhibition; they remained there for the entirety of the exhibition and the two weeks preceding it. We conceived of a promotional tagline “Whatever the Weather, Let’s Weather Together”, which was used in the promotion of the exhibition.
Poetry umbrella in use
Poetry Umbrella in use
