Creatives Making A Difference
‘Supporting Mental Health’
FEAR/TRUST Collaboration
Welcome to the forth and final collaboration in an eight week, fortnightly engagement with the emotions of fear and trust. Ā For this particular collaboration we have paired four artists and four poets together. The artists have taken up the theme of fear, and the poets, in response, are engaging Ā with the theme of trust. In so doing we’re attempting to artistically and accessibly engage with the dynamics between the two emotions – the clashes and the spectrum between the two contrasting feelings. The poets and artists have been exchanging Ā ideas over a number of weeks and what you’ll be seeing as the weeks roll by is the diverse expression of that exchange.
Ā It’s our intention that these collaborations will form an online resource which will Ā potentially bring comfort, provide an innovative Ā means to engage with difficult feelings, and ultimately to provide access to information about mental health in a stimulating manner. The idea is that we will also eventually group these collaborations together into exhibitions and installations to further promote public awareness and engagement with these issues. Your feedback on this project would be very much welcomed.
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This week’s collaboration features
Ā Ray BentleyĀ (Artist) and Melissa Diem (Poet)
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Behind
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An Empathy for Small Machines
by Melissa Diem
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Please do click on the poem to enlarge
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You can find out more about Ray and Melissa below:
Ray BentleyĀ Ā
Ray Bentley is an award-winning painter from Stoke-on-Trent whose still lifes and figurative paintings have been exhibited throughout the UK. He now lives and works near Redcar with his partner and dog, where he spends his days eating biscuits, napping, not doing the housework, tweeting about his favourite things, reading thrillers and – occasionally – painting. You can learn more about him atĀ http://raymondbentley.com/.
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Melissa Diem:
Melissa Diem has an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin and was awarded a Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholarship. She has published the novel,Ā ChangelingĀ [Pan (UK) and Gill & Macmillan (Ireland)] and poetry in several journals includingĀ Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, The Shop, The Sunday Tribune, and Rival. She was the Featured Poet inĀ The Stinging FlyĀ Spring issue 2010. She was shortlisted for both theĀ Hennessy Literary Awards and the BradshawĀ Cork Literary Review Poetry Manuscript Competition and joint runner up for theĀ Patrick KavanaghĀ Poetry Award. Melissa has exhibited visual media throughout Ireland including at the RHA, Iontas, Guinness Hopstore and The Ark. The one about the bird and Appraisal are her first poetry films and have been selected for several festivals including Belfast Film Festival 2013, Filmpoem 2013, Visible Verse 2013, 9th Cologne International Videoart Festival and finalist in the La Parola Immaginata ā Trevigliopoesia 2013 andĀ Ć BhĆ©al International Poetry-Film Competition, 2013. Ā She is currently working on her third poetry film and developing artwork for an upcoming book of poetry.Ā
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*If you would like to be a creative involved in one of our ‘Supporting Mental Health’ Collaborations next season do get in touch via the comment boxes or @ArtiPeep.Ā
Thank you so much for your interest.