Amber Cronin, curator at The Mill is working with artist, John Blines on his latest project: Memory Objects to realise the next stages of his research. John is an artist who is passionate about the benefit of arts-in-health. Since July 2015, he has been working with cancer patients and their carers, cancer researchers and psychologists at the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer. John served in the Royal Australian Air Force for 20 years. This fraternal link has motivated John to work with Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. John himself has incurable cancer and an associated mental health condition and sees the benefit that his arts practice has on his wellbeing and wishes explore sharing his practice through the framework presented by the institutional space of the gallery. John aims to use his time in residence at The Mill to consider childhood memories which often permeate mental health conditions through, he will do this through the creation of objects created from his own memory. It is both personal therapy and an experiment within a broader Arts in Health framework.The wax and silver objects, either as an archive or assembled into new forms, represent the possibility of an altered psychology.
This project is experimental and is anticipated as a small and evolving installation over the three month residency period. The methodology and understanding of the process and its outcomes will develop and evolve during the project. As a way of instigating the evolution of this project, John will also work with Returned Service Personnel who have been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or other mental health conditions as a regular meet up and feedback group. The project consists of a three month publicly accessible gallery residency displaying/working on the evolving artwork - this residency makes process available to the audience. John will also hold an artist talk and workshop (in creating objects) to share his practice.