Dementia Journeys - Science Gallery London
With Kings College London & University College London
Dementia is the most common cause of death in the UK, but access to good end of life care is highly unequal. Presented at Science Gallery London in April & May 2024, Dementia Journeys was a new exhibition that powerfully presents the experiences of those who care for people dying with dementia, and uncovers ways in which care could be improved. The stories of the carers will be told through portrait photography by two-times winner of the BJP Portrait of Britain prize, Allie Crewe, and comic strips by pioneering cartoonist, doctor and storyteller, Ian Williams, alongside interactive elements and games. Poet, writer and performance maker Louise Wallwein worked with individuals who have experience off caring for someone with dementia and members of the research team to create a new Manifesto for Dementia Care.
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The exhibition was created with, and represents three incredible women who all cared for close family members as they approached the end of their lives: Tia, Keiko and Fran. Without them and their commitment to talking openly and honestly about the realities of caring for someone with dementia, this exhibition would not exist.
Curated by Tim Harrison, the exhibition has been created in response to Empowering Better End of-Life Dementia Care (EMBED-Care) – a 6-year research programme jointly led by University College London and the Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London that aims to generate a step-change in how care is provided for people at any age with any type of dementia.
Allie Crewe
Allie Crewe is a photographer who seeks narratives of survival and resilience, exploring the stories of those who grow, who build a new life and embrace change. Through an intensive, research-based approach, she identifies tenderness, beauty and vulnerability in her sitters. She invites participants to shape their representation, acknowledging the potential unease in the power dynamic and striving to create a more authentic and empowering image. Allie immerses herself in projects with the conviction that art can provoke new thinking and drive positive change. Allie is compelled to capture the portraits of people who seek transformation, believing that a portrait should reach beyond the surface to be truly poignant, revealing a tender beauty. To her, photography is a poetic force that weaves stories with a touch of magic, aiming to unveil the inner landscapes of those she works with.
Allie is a recipient of the Portrait of Britain awards in 2019 and 2023 by the British Journal of Photography, and has been commissioned twice by Arts Council England. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Photography. Her recent portraits have been featured in The Guardian, The Telegraph Magazine, The Observer, Vogue, and BBC News.
Ian Williams
Dr Ian Williams is an award-winning comics artist, educator, and doctor who lives in Brighton. His graphic novel, The Bad Doctor, was published in 2014 and followed up in 2019 by The Lady Doctor. Both were critically acclaimed and he is working on his third, for the same publishers, provisionally entitled The Sick Doctor, which will be published in 2024.
He studied Fine Art after medical school and then became involved in the Medical Humanities movement. He named the area of study called Graphic Medicine, building the eponymous website in 2007, which he currently co-edits. He is a founding member of the not-for-profit Graphic Medicine International Collective and co-author of the Eisner-nominated Graphic Medicine Manifesto. He has been the recipient of several grants has contributed to numerous medical, humanities, and comics publications, and has sat on the board of a number of arts and humanities organisations.
Louise Wallwein
A renowned and award-winning poet, playwright and performer from Manchester, Louise Wallwein has made a name for herself as an explosive artist that detonates her audiences’ imaginations.
“She is fierce, funny, self-deprecating, warm, tough and sometimes very small indeed, showing her vulnerability.’ Ailís Ní Ríain-Playwright
Her plays have been broadcast by the BBC Radio Drama North, produced by theatre and production companies Red Ladder, National Theatre Wales, Arena Theatre Melbourne, Push Festival, Royal Exchange, Greenwich and Docklands Festival/ GET North 18/BBC One. She has performed at many Festivals such as BBC Contains Strong Language, Hay Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Hull 17, Outburst Queer Arts Festival Belfast, Melbourne International Book Festival and The Hay Festival. Louise has appeared as a guest contributor on programmes such as Front Row, The Verb R3 R4 and Reform Radio. Louise was Poet in Residence of Queensland, Australia 2006 and Writer in Residence at the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture, Winnipeg, Canada.
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