‘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. 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.
