Emma Pollock on the relationship between the arts and mental health
The arts, with regards to mental health (whether it be positive or negative) are absolutely crucial. It is through the arts that people tend to show their character, who they are and why they’re different to the next person that they sit beside when they go to work every day. Your choice in the Arts as a consumer or a creator becomes a defining feature of who you are. And so whilst it’s difficult to quantify the benefit of a music industry or a visual arts industry or whatever, it is still absolutely vital that they exist.
So, as in this case, to have a bunch of musicians coming together to try and create awareness makes complete sense. None of us are necessarily wanting to sit down and talk in detail about the subject itself because we’re not, well I’m not, qualified to do that. I’ve had experience with my own mental stability (I suffered from post-natal depression) and a lot of women have had that. An awful lot of people will experience a challenge in that area in their life.
Unfortunately, it still has a stigma about it, particularly in Scotland, even though it’s incredibly common. It’s also very prevailing with people who are involved in the arts because there is a dalliance with exploring what makes you tick. It tempts questions, doubt, self-effacement and all these things that you generally have to get involved with because the whole point of being an artist, whether you’re doing films or music or writing or anything is to try to pull something out of yourself to turn into something unique.
The motivation for wanting to do that is usually the feeling of a need for correction of some kind, but that need for correction can sometimes lead to dissatisfaction with your own situation. There’s been a lot of research into the area, and it’s not something I would pretend to even know enough about; but I do know that the whole existence of the arts, whether it be vocation, part-time or a hobby, is fundamentally about who we are as people. Its marriage with mental health is unavoidable.
Rod Jones & Emma Pollock with Friends play HMV Picture House on 1 Oct and O2 ABC on 2 Oct, where copies of First Edition will be available
The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival takes place from 1-24 Oct