Join us for an online screening event and Q&A that gives a chance to see the three new artist’s films featuring in James Paddock’s current Exeter Phoenix solo exhibition, Life Could Be Done So Much Better.

Mirrored to the Core (14 mins) / A Duo Becomes a Quartet (6 mins) / The Way in Which We Journey (10 mins)

The three short films are all subtitled and, following the screening, curator Lisa Slominski will host a short audience-led Q&A with James Paddock.

The exhibition includes new video and installation works by artist James Paddock, who uses his lived experience as a Voice Hearer to create insightful fictional dialogues about living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

His films are presented as three fictional ‘scenarios’ that Voice Hearers may encounter, to explore the human condition through the universal motifs of love, confinement and being misunderstood. In turn, these explorations aim to create a deeper and more multifaceted understanding of being a Voice Hearer. He highlights alternative possibilities that may contrast with common depictions of the challenges that Voice Hearers often face and hopes to reduce prejudices that have plagued Voice Hearers past and present.

BOOK HERE >>

About James Paddock:

James Paddock is a visual artist working in installation and film who uses his lived experience as a Voice Hearer to create insightful fictional dialogues about living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He is based in Southampton, UK.

About Lisa Slominski:

Lisa Slominski is an American writer, curator & researcher based in East London. Her work explores activations of access and inclusion in the current contemporary art discourse and examines the historical framework of underrepresented artists with a particular interest in agency.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

A solo exhibition of new video and installation works by artist James Paddock who explores the reality of Voice Hearing to create an insightful dialogue about his experience of living with a diagnosis of “schizophrenia”.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is an operatic video, “Mirrored to the Core”, a love story about two young Voice Hearers whose telepathic dialogue is represented through song.

An adjacent installation, “A duo becomes a quartet”, is inspired by the artist’s experience of mental illness treatment. It includes a new film that tells the story of two Voice Hearers who have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act, alongside a series of T-shirts printed with slogans reflecting on Voice Hearers’ experiences and on how things could be improved.

Find out more about the exhibition >>

VENUE: ONLINE