In The Lunatics’ Common Room, photographer Yoanna Walden presents a series of works inspired by the art and lives of individuals detained against their will in psychiatric institutions over the past three centuries. In addition to drawing on the work of Antonin Artaud, Osamu Dazai, Bessie Head, Stella do Patrocínio, John Thomas Perceval, Valérie Valère and Unica Zürn, the artist also draws on her own experiences of hospitalisation and those of her late uncle, Hannes, who spent time at Willard Psychiatric Hospital in upstate New York. The result is a body of photographic work that moves fluidly between historical research, personal testimony, and contemporary commentary. In bringing fragments of the past into dialogue with the present, and the historical into dialogue with the personal, Walden seeks to create a body of work through which suppressed ontologies of madness can be shared, envisioning The Lunatics' Common Room as a communal space outside institutional boundaries, an imagined ‘room of our own’.

The works are presented through a combination of classical and unconventional framing devices, including repurposed objects such as family serving trays. While most works are wall-mounted, others are embedded within domestic objects, such as a small chest or a glass-topped folding table. This approach extends the communal register of the exhibition, reinforcing the sense of an inhabited, intimate environment. In accompanying text, references to medical diagnoses are absent, supporting an approach that foregrounds the individuals rather than their categorization, and encouraging a more direct and unmediated encounter with the works.

Open: 11.00 - 18.00

Wednesday 2nd to Saturday 12th September 2026 

FREE