CHAOS: A Co-Created book publication

The exhibition featured the book publication, CHAOS: A Co-Creation, and a large print of one of the collaborative artwork's, ‘Dark Angel’. The book is the result of a year-long mental health project between social services support organisation Chaos Group and students of MA Authorial Illustration at Falmouth University.

The artwork was generated by a dozen or so participants working simultaneously on a large sheet of paper placed on a floor, using a pre-cut stencil, based on a sketch made by one of the service users. The image is one of four tipped-in illustrations within the 80-paged book, which was published by Atlantic Press in August 2019.

CHAOS: A Co-Creation was put together through a non-hierarchical co-creation process. The project was developed to explore illustration as a visual communication methodology to enable people with mental ill-health to make visible the invisible, and articulate through a creative thought process, that which the written form and spoken word alone cannot express. Individuals held back from healthy emotional experiences and confident communication, were given a platform to find their own unique voice through trust, play, creativity and relationship building. The project explores the question: could an illustrational mindset – one rooted within personal authorship – bring out those personal voices, re-kindling a sense of worth and self-esteem?

• https://www.illustrationresearch.org
• http://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/3536/