Battle Against Stigma
2015-2018
Photo and text book uniquely disseminated, accompanied by an exhibition and film. Exhibited at SK Kultur Cologne and Kunsthalle Nuremberg in 2016, coming to QUAD museum, Derby, England, on March 30th through to June 10th 2018, and to the Daiwa Art Foundation, Japan House, London, as part of the 2018 Daiwa Art Foundation Prize 2018 opening on June 7th 2018
Supported by Mark Neville and the Wellcome Trust
A book, a series of photographs, and portfolios of e-mail responses from veterans to the book
The Battle Against Stigma exhibition features photographs, films, emails and copies of a book, also titled Battle Against Stigma, that recounts Neville’s own personal experience when he was sent out to Helmand in 2011 as an official war artist. The exhibition and book intend to give some insight into the issue of adjustment disorder and PTSD which he suffered from on his return to the UK. The Battle Against Stigma book, co-authored by Neville and veteran mental health expert Jamie Hacker Hughes, is divided into two-volumes. The first volume is the re-telling, including his photographs, of Neville’s own personal experience when he was sent out to Helmand in 2011 as an official war artist and his troubled return, and the second volume is made-up of the written testimonies about PTSD and adjustment disorder from serving and ex-serving soldiers. The first 500 copies of the book were seized at customs by UK Border Force. However, a second consignment of 1,000 copies entered the UK via a different route thus escaping seizure and arriving safely at Neville’s studio. Throughout 2015 Neville distributed these copies free to Defence Mental Health Services, prison libraries, homeless veterans, probation services, and veteran mental health charities. Neville wrote an essay on his PTSD, including extracts from the book, for The Independent News Review magazine in 2015, in which he encouraged veterans to contact him. The response was a staggering 1,000 emails sent from veterans, families and friends, organisations (as well as non-veterans) sharing their experiences of these conditions and requesting copies of the book. A selection of these emails is included in the exhibition. Together this mass of documentation constitutes a major new insight into the experiences of those suffering from mental illness following service in modern warfare. Neville’s presents his own experience of war related trauma, along with others’ in order to encourage other sufferers to speak out.
During the exhibition Mark Neville and former RAF Sergeant Sammy Sturgess will also be hosting a day long event at QUAD museum in which veterans are invited to contribute to a collection of oral history accounts of PTSD and adjustment disorders collated from former British service personnel and their support networks. The aim of the event is to encourage a cultural shift amongst the UK population, MOD and government that will remove the stigma of talking about military mental health, Neville will create a manifesto of improvements that can be implemented by the MoD, based on empirical evidence collated from veterans and their support networks, which will invoke progress in the development of better provision for the prevention of war related mental health conditions within the military. The archive of testimonies which Neville collects relating to post traumatic stress disorder and adjustment disorder experienced by British service personnel will be ultimately housed at Kings’ College London’s Archive, to inform future research and policy.
Are you a former serviceman or woman who feels you may be suffering with adjustment disorder? Please write to me in confidence at info@markneville.com to receive a free copy of Battle Against Stigma.
Below IS ONE of the thousands of e-mails Neville received from veterans in response to the PROJECT, reproduced Here and in THE EXHIBITION with full consent:
From: Luke Lovejoy
Subject: ‘Battle Against Stigma’
Date: 28 May 2015 14:21
To: info@markneville.com
Dear Mark,
I read your article in the Independent with tears in my eyes. My son served in Afghanistan with the Special Forces Support Group and has been struggling with PTSD since his return and since leaving the Army. His relationship with his partner broke down shortly after his return, he ran up significant debts and he won't speak to me (for over a year) as I seem to be some sort of representation of the demons in his life. I was an Army officer for many years and an obvious 'authority figure' with whom he is struggling. Maybe there is blame on my part. This has at least allowed him to focus his anger and whatever else on me and we no longer fear that he might take his own life, and so as hard as it it, it is something that I can bear in the hope that it gives him the room he needs to become well again. Fortunately he still maintains a relationship with my wife and that is how we stay in touch, but he, like you, is definitely struggling to readjust and is resisting help. He had a small amount of therapy, which seemed to start him on a journey that he is now unable to continue, and he refuses to take anti-depressants.
Please can you send me a copy of your book?
I hope that if we give him the book (via my wife) that he might identify with it and gain some insight which might help him. What you are doing is important. Thank-you. I don't have a God of my own, but if you do then may he or she or they bless you for what you are doing.
I wish you well with your own continuing journey of adjustment and hope you continue to thrive.
Regards,
Luke Lovejoy
PRESS
http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2015/10/the-battle-against-stigma-by-mark-neville-2015/