I was very honoured to take part in the #medicineonthewalls ‘Stay In’ project, piloted by Dr John Lee at the University of Bristol’s intercalated BA in Medical Humanities, in collaboration with People’s Republic of Stokes Croft and street artist Object.
“#medicineonthewalls takes Graphic Medicine to the streets. It tries to start healthcare discussions going from the ground up, and not the top down. #medicineonthewalls tries to make the kind of emotional engagement with medicine and health happen better than it often does through official channels. Taking Graphic Medicine to the streets is particularly appropriate here in Bristol, because street art is now a bit of a Bristol-fashion.”
I was asked to create a comic strip to be painted on the wall and chose to talk about motherhood and activism in lockdown. The mural was then painted by Object who only had a very limited time to reproduce the visual. I wanted to talk about the difficulty of parenting young kids during lockdown and the impact it can have on mental health. I also wanted to pass on a message that we can't let this world get back to 'normal' after this and that the anger we can feel towards our government might be an opportunity to feed our activist-self.
The visual will be soon replaced by the next 'Stay In' design.
More about the #medicineonthewalls project here. A timelapse of the mural is available here. Read the call for international participation at graphicmedicine.org. Historic England featured the project here.