RECOVERY

A special exhibition for National Recovery Month is highlighting the power of art as a vital recovery tool , says Kenn Taylor

Emilie was a drug and alcohol worker in Sheffield for 11 years before training as an art therapist , and this is her third collaboration with Project 6 .

The project is now the subject of an exhibition in Sheffield during National Recovery Month . The aim is to highlight the importance of place , community and belonging and encourage people to reflect ‘ on how our personal journeys are part of the fabric of the city ’.

MOMENTS OF CHANGE I met up with six of those 11 collaborators – Sam , Ben , Ruth , Matt , Lee and Dave – along with Emilie and Christopher , who details the concept at the heart of the project : ‘ We wanted to map and tell the stories of people ’ s journeys and moments of great change in their lives through the languages of imagery , colour and craft . Inspired by the symbolism from Sheffield ’ s past , we settled on pilgrim flasks and banners as the artefacts to hold and tell these stories .’

I ask the group what they thought of these themes when they were presented with them . ‘ We were going in blind ,’ says Lee . ‘ But I like history and the references were medieval , so I was quite happy with that . The broader context of us all going on a pilgrimage , that ’ s what we ’ ve done through this process .’

‘ When we presented it , I did sense some hesitation , understandably so , but everyone got on board ,’ says Christopher . ‘ Dealing with hard things in your life , if you can abstract them a bit , I think it helps . Embedding our stories into craft I feel is one of the most ancient and effective ways of making sense of the world .’

They met every Friday over 14 weeks , beginning each session talking about whatever came up for them , then drawing and printing in response . ‘ The

‘ Embedding our stories into craft I feel is one of the most ancient and effective ways of making sense of the world .’

CHRISTOPHER JARRATT

most evocative part , drawing something every week , from our thoughts and feelings , opened up something new ,’ says Lee . ‘ That really connected us , was the glue that tied us in .’

After talking and drawing , they moved to creating objects . For the first seven weeks , they crafted the clay pilgrim flasks . For the remaining seven , they dyed and sewed large cloth pennants . ‘ Making the drawings and letting what was under the surface speak could be emotionally deep and very heavy ,’ says Emilie . ‘ Moving into material processes offered a way to sit with the weight of feeling in the room . Craft holds space . There were times , I remember dyeing the fabric after very difficult conversations , the mood transformed into all of us having an absolute riot .’

SIGNIFICANCE Locations around the city that had significant meanings to individual group members became a focus as the project developed . They decided to dedicate one session to visiting places they ’ d each chosen . After arriving , they ’ d share what it meant to them and this was audio recorded . Later , footage was taken of the places and merged with the audio to create a film which forms part of the project . It ’ s clear this revisitation of locations which held strong and sometimes painful memories had a significant impact on them . ‘ My place was the Millennium Gallery ,’ says Ruth . ‘ I went in again recently . It ’ s almost like it ’ s been exorcised from me , through this process . I used to only associate it with bad things , but it ’ s very different now for me .’ Dave agrees , ‘ Like the park , I have found peace with it now . I go and sit at the bridge and listen to the running water . It ’ s that journey .’

I ask about the images they chose for their flasks and banners . ‘ I drew a wheelie bin full of empty wine bottles ,’ Ruth explains . ‘ I never realised how much stress that would cause me during my

22 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • SEPTEMBER 2022 WWW . DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS . COM