Mental ill-health amongst artists is three times the national average. To coincide with Confessional’s themes of trauma and anxiety, we are offering free acupuncture sessions for artists in partnership with Extern. 24 places are available and will be allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Please note: this is auricular (ear) acupuncture rather than whole body. Auricular acupuncture treatment decompresses the nervous system to produce calmness. It detoxifies and balances the body energy channels.

This will be supported with acupressure techniques (which do not involve needles) and complimentary therapies massage – head, hands, full body, reflexology – as well as reiki.

Over a five week period, Helen and Gillian worked with a group of nine adolescent girls from four schools across Belfast. Using smartphones, the girls produced a series of 34 photographs, giving a powerful and moving insight into their lives inside and outside of the mainstream school environment.

Led by Gillian O’Hagan and Helen Sloan, this discussion will delve deeper into the focus of the Missing Voices project which aims to amplify the adolescent female voice of ASD. The panel will look at the importance of creative expression in helping girls with ASD to allow parents, teachers, friends and others to understand their experience of the world around them.

They will also discuss the chronic problem of misdiagnosis in female ASD, asking why practitioners continue to use male-led diagnostic criteria that leaves countless young girls unseen, unheard and unrepresented.

Launch: Saturday November 10th 2018 2pm to 4pm
Exhibition Dates: November 12th to December 21st 2018

She describes it as a monologue of misery, made slowly with many intermissions and peppered with moments of levity to sweeten the pill. The ephemera of a sick life and the associated pills, potions, cures and lotions are some of the themes in this work.

Not Half Right also explores rituals around healing and the never-ending search for ‘the cure’. Over the years McCormick has amassed a grand hoard of useless articles and medically related tat much of which has found its way into the drawings, prints and assemblages in the show.