Adam de Vere Has studied at Falmouth college of art, Manchester Architecture school and the Royal Drawing School. His practice revolves around drawing and what it can teach us as a path to seeing and finding the true names of things. In practice Adam has worked on a number of large scale affordable housing projects in south London. After graduation he is looking to work as a concept artist, illustrator or continue training as an architect.
Adam De Vere
“Modern man no longer communicates with the madman . . . There is no common language, or rather, it no longer exists; the constitution of madness as mental illness, at the end of the eighteenth century, bears witness to a rupture in a dialogue, gives the separation as already enacted, and expels from the memory all those imperfect words, of no fixed syntax, spoken falteringly, in which the exchange, between madness and reason, was carried out. The language of psychiatry, which is a monologue by reason about madness, could only have come into existence in such a silence” - Foucault - Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
This project proposes a set of interlinked spaces in Swinley forest next to the infamous Broadmoor, that house activities that could help build that bridge and kill the silence between us.
It will attempt to subvert asylum architecture to redefine narratives of victims of violent institutionalisation and explore the forest as a site of acceptance and communication.
Kirkbride plans –
All of these asylums were designed with Thomas Kirkbrides plans in mind. They formed the backbone of asylum architecture from the 1720's to the present day. They have permeated culture to now represent madness in brick and mortar.
Asylums impose themselves on both the landscape and its patients. Locking people far away from the world in layers of brick walls, right angles, small windows, padded surfaces and triple locked doors. These are Kirkbride asylums they form our modern conception of mad spaces.
Medium:
Digital, Hand drawn, collage.Size:
a0
Bonding through endurance. –
Studies have shown that regular exercise can lessen the quantity and intensity of sensory hallucinations and in cases where that doesn’t happen the person’s ability to cope and handle said phenomena. Specifically what is referred to as Zone 2 workouts. One of the best ways to sustain and enjoy zone 2 aerobic output is cycling and a wonderful social activity and way of exploring a site with independence. As a wayfinding movement it compresses large spaces down making them feel more known and manageable.
Drawing when language fails us. –
There are therefore two types of drawing that are used in this therefore. Drawing from the imagination ( illustration ) and observational drawing. On the surface they serve two distinct purposes. One to draw your inner world and one to draw the outer world.
I argue that all drawing is autobiographical and that observational drawing allows a large group of people to relate to eachother far better as they see the same object many different ways. Therefore viewing someones lense rather than their self concept
Medium:
Hand drawn.Size:
a0
Swinley Forest –
Swinley forest is one of the oldest forests in south England the most important is the fact it holds gravel cycling in south east england on a myriad of trails. But most importantly for the people using my site it holds Broadmoor hospital and its associated institutions in its grasp. This revisiting for the people will both be painful and healing as it can help to rewrite the self narrative about their institutionalisation.
Caeser's Camp –
Caeser's Camp is an iron age fortification in the heart of Swinley forest. It has a natural HA-HA wall around the perimeter and is circled by the dense forest. The plains on the plateau are heather and grassland. It provides the perfect secluded and private areas for the programme of the site.
Medium:
DigitalSize:
a0
Fae lands 1 –
Fantasy plays a real role in this project. Fantasy is in part the creation and exploration of the unreal. Im hoping the sparsness and simplicity of this project will create a kind of fantasy space in the already ethereal forest.
Fae lands 2 –
The Fae is a place parallel to ours where the mad have gone to seek the names of things. The knowledge has a price. These model-scapes play on this folklore and are a vision of what the site will look like years from now. Not real and scale ambiguous.
Drawing objects –
As life drawing is the main access point for new artists. I aim to challenge that. Life drawing is the hardest of drawing pursuits. Most people assess their drawings via accuracy and humans are the hardest to get "right" as we as humans are built to recognise the patterns of the human form. In fact anything with a direct reference is a hinderence. Therefore these objects are without reference. Designed to be drawn.
Medium:
claySize:
1-10
Follow the broken wall –
The forest is the site of healing and communication and the buildings just facilitate this. They are the opposite to asylum architecture. Where asylums are defined and exact this is vague and flowing. Where walls are solid and encompassing these are broken and porous. Where asylums have layers and layers of tectonics and paths and corners these are simple.
Medium:
Cnc and clay.Size:
a0
Thatched model 1 –
Materiality of the project is to have a modern transmutation of the materials that would have been on site in the iron age but with modern construction methods.
Thatched model 2 –
It holds the drawing models to be taken home by the users of the site so they can practice at home.
Medium:
Wood and natural materialsSize:
500x600x2100mm
Buildings of few parts –
The buildings are deliberately simple. They are a modern transmutation of the iron age thatched structures. A timber decking and waffle structure support a thatched roof with a polypropylene mesh between. Open and exposed to the elements.
Isolation pods –
For those who get overwhelmed or need a moment these pods live at the edge of the space away from it all. The opposite of the padded cell. Just a low stimulus environment where one can come and go as they please.
Refectory –
Hub area where bikes are picked up and dropped off as well as a social space and kitchen to refuel post and pre ride. Mess halls in asylums are highly monitored and socialisation is pristine. Here there is no such interference.
Tower –
Three little outposts that guard all the entrances its job is to let anyone leave but check those that enter. The site is sensitive and the people are revealing great truths they must be protected from those who would not understand. The opposite of the asylum where anyone can come and ogle but nobody can leave. Where in an asylum these buildings towered above the site as a watchful eye. Here they are small like a valve.
Washing –
Washing in asylums is often done by force and privacy is not a right of the patients despite being in a porcelain cubicle with 5 other inmates. Here it is open to the forest on one side facing into the forest and away from any paths or sightlines. Washing is done in private and is of course voluntary.
Garden of names –
Here is where looking becomes seeing and names are found. This is where drawing happens. Objects of varying difficulty and scale for the class to orient themselves around. Shelter large and small.
Medium:
digitalSize:
300mmx1300mm
Washing in the forest –
These are all interconnected with the wall that comes and goes. They dont show you the edges of your allowed space they guide you through it and if you follow them long enough out of the space. Moments to be inhabited.
Tower –
They provide very little other than an excuse to congregate in a slight increase in comfort. Where the barrier between inside outside is about as hard as any building as its a prison this brings elements of interior to the outside to challenge that conception.
Isolation pods –
A NON scientific way of defining madness is one where a person lives in a world different enough from ours that it crosses an invisible boundary and in most cases an arbitrary and hypocritical line.
Garden of Names –
These spaces are not for getting better we are not here to cure. Its a space to communicate these nearly ineffable concepts to us “normal” people. Where we leave the tools of psychiatry at the door and for a brief moment take a madmans words as truth.
Refectory –
The psychiatrist ive liaised with through this project described psychosis or schizophrenia that has occured from enviromental stimulus as “ an entirely sane self defense mechanism to an insane trauma”.