Phoebe’s practice-based research explores the clinical encounter for inpatients in locked NHS mental-health services. Seeking alternatives to standardised approaches in mental-health care, which rely on binary modalities such as sick/healthy, normal/pathological, their approach builds upon expanded notions of ‘queer’ that challenge established categories of identity and disturb the order of things (Ahmed, 2016). The concept of ‘pathoplasty’ (Oury, 2007), in understanding how disorders are constructed in correlation with the social and material environment, provides a framework for the research. Their artistic practice acts as a tool for both investigation and dissemination in de-stabilising ‘othering’ categories, communicated through mental-health unit environments.

Links

Website: www.phoebeeustance.com

Twitter: @phoebeus.tance