Discharged in mental health

Ten days in a Mad House examines the use of psychiatry to pathologise female nonconformity throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The four murals of  𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 appropriate and transform the language of psychiatry. Based on questionable symptoms used to forcefully commit women to psychiatric asylums (𝘏𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢, 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘴, 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨_𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯), the handwriting in each mural repeats and loops upon itself, the symptoms bursting out of the confines of the patient case file to transfigure into images of wild beasts upon the wall. The fourth phrase 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 is recorded as a reason of discharge  in   the archives of Dromokaiteion Hospital.

Through the act of writing, the murals pay tribute to the memory of the women who were violently detained for failing to conform to the standards of ‘normalcy’ within a patriarchal society – but also to all women around the world suffering under the current rise of gender-based violence. At the same time, the murals are a reminder of the marginalisation of female voices throughout history, as women have often resorted to expressing themselves through illegible manuscripts in response to a world which would rather they remained politically and socially invisible.

The title 𝘛𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘥 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 refers to the book written by journalist Elisabeth Jane Cochrane under the pen name Nellie Bly in 1887. In this book she describes her experience in the Blackwell Island asylum, where, on a mission for the New York World newspaper, she was hospitalised under pretence of insanity and discovered the horrific living conditions therein.