Art / Bristol Photo Festival
Bristol Photo Festival 2021 – Jo Spence : From Fairy Tales to Phototherapy
The intersection between arts, health and wellbeing is the focus of one of Bristol Photo Festival‘s first summer exhibitions to open.
Jo Spence: From Fairy Tales to Phototherapy runs from May 18 to June 20 at the Arnolfini and celebrates Spence’s work as a photo therapist, in which she used photography as a medium to address personal trauma.
Described as an “underdog” in the art world, the month-long exhibition will explore how Spence used photography as a tool to raise difficult questions and call out the social inequalities that they experienced or witnessed.
is needed now More than ever
“Inequalities around gender, class and health which are as relevant today as they were when she was making the work,” says exhibition co-curator Keiko Higashi.
“I hope it (the exhibition) encourages us all to have more open conversations around health and wellbeing. When I’ve been sharing Spence’s work in workshops recently, so many people have connected with the experiences that Spence speaks about in her work, whether it is to do with her cancer diagnosis, working class background or feelings around shame and body image.”
Keiko Higashi, engagement producer at Arnolfini and co-curator of the exhibition. Photo: Lisa Whiting
Arnolfini’s exhibition focuses on the small-scale photographs that Spence used in her phototherapy sessions as well as the laminate panels that she used for her workshops and touring exhibitions.
The exhibition, which also marks to reopening of the gallery, is a major retrospective of the work of Jo Spence, who lived from 1934 to 1992, and will be shown alongside A Picture of Health.
A Picture of Health aims to de-stigmatise subjects around mental health and create an environment in which people can have open conversations about their wellbeing, while including the voices of local people with lived experiences of mental health. Curated in conjunction with creativeShift.
The exhibition includes work by Heather Agyepong, Sonia Boyce, Eliza Hatch, Susan Hiller, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Anna Fox, Rosy Martin (in collaboration with Verity Welstead), Polly Penrose, Jo Spence, and Paloma Tendero.
Bristol24/7 is Bristol Photo Festival’s local media partner. This article is part of a series looking at the festival’s summer exhibitions.
Main photo of Only When I Got to Fifty Did I Realise I was Cinderella ,(03) 1984 Jo Spence: 1984, In collaboration with Rosy Martin. All images by Jo Spence © The Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, Canada
Read more: Bristol Photo Festival 2021 – Island Life: A Portrait of Britain
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
