27th November 2024
Us & Them is a series of specially commissioned wet plate collodion portraits co-created with some of the disabled Actors and Artists from Freewheelers Media & Theatre Company. Exploring visual representations of physical disability and mental illness in Surrey, past and present. Funded by King’s College London in collaboration with the Surrey History Centre and On the Record.
Digital Tintypes were made from copies of the original patient records, which are now too fragile to leave the Surrey History Centre.
First exhibited at the Horton Arts Centre in Epsom, December 2023. Fittingly for this project, the Horton is a former Chapel for one of the Epsom Cluster of Psychiatric Hospitals where some of the featured patients would have resided.
The banner image on this page intersperses contemporary wet plate collodion portraits of current Freewheelers performers by Emma Brown with archive portraits from Surrey History Centre. Left to right:
- Sonas wore all of his hats, as they’re all his favourites! He chose to be paired with the music hall performer Byron Pedley.
- Byron Pedley enjoyed fame as a comedic star on stage. In his 60s he suffered an episode of ‘confusional insanity’ and died 3 weeks after being admitted to Long Grove Asylum.
- Alice, who is famous for her sense of style chose to be paired with Rose Harris whose medical casebook has been unfortunately been lost.
- Rose Harris, paired with Alice. Although her records were lost we do know that her ‘husband’ Edward visited Rose 23 times in the 2 years she was in the Manor Hospital.
Documentary credits: On the Record (audio). Steve Rosam (Videography)
The Us and Them artwork has been inspired by reviewing nineteenth-century archive photographs of patients taken on admission to the ‘Epsom Cluster’ of psychiatric hospitals. The hospitals also housed people with learning disabilities, epilepsy and Down’s Syndrome, which were classified in the same way as mental illness at that time.
The new portraits are provocatively paired with the original Victorian photographs made with the same photographic process, to provoke public conversations about discrimination and how disability is understood, especially through visual representations.
This striking new collection of images highlights the diversity of disabled artists, celebrates commonality, and unsettles the differences between ‘us and them’.
Us and Them has been supported by Surrey History Centre and with funding from King’s College London. Oral history and audio recording provided by On the Record.
About Freewheelers Media & Theatre Company:
Freewheelers are a diverse and creative company of people with disabilities based in Surrey. They work alongside directors, producers, composers, artists and writers, to co-create and produce engaging, thought-provoking, funny, joyous and highly entertaining theatre, dance, film, and music.
For over thirty years, Freewheelers has been challenging perceptions and defying expectations.