Dementia Parts 1 & 2 - Westminster Arts - London - 2008

'Dementia' was commissioned as part of 'Arts+Minds' an arts project for older people receiving care. It was a pilot project run by Westminster Arts, to explore the impact on the well-being of older people in care settings in the city of Westminster in 2007.It was also part of an exhibition Untold:An exploration of identity in old age, in April 2008 at the SW1 Gallery, London. Untold was inspired by the project as a way of showcasing the work of older people and provided the opportunity for an artistic response which explored some of the very important issues experienced by older people and their carers. The commissioned artists were Helen Marshall, Susan Aldworth, Deborah Padfield and composer Fraser Trainer. The project is set in the context of the Government Older Peoples' Agenda, a white paper setting out a policy for older people including the government's acknowledgement that the issue of growing numbers of older people is a demographic which cannot be ignored.

Helen Marshall worked with a group of seven clients one at a time with video and photography over ten weeks. Many of the clients she worked with in this residential care setting had profound degrees of memory loss and difficulty in communicating. The way of working created a relaxed environment where the participants led the process either by using the camera themselves or by simply letting the camera roll with minimum direction or intrusion. In this work a distinctive and unorthodox approach explores aspects of old age in a new way. On the surface the film is a study of the symptoms of dementia, but in reality it is about the sense of self that continues to exist against all odds. The film is a work in progress in two parts; Robert and Gilbert.

Westminster Arts