The art of living with brain injury

AN exhibition of art by people with brain injuries has opened at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley.

The show, called Living With Brain Injury, features sculptures, paintings, drawings and audio recordings by people supported by Headway Thames Valley and collaborations by staff, volunteers and families.

The charity, which is based at Brunner Hall in Greys Road, helps support people who have suffered brain injuries.

The exhibition gives an insight into the impact of brain injuries on the people affected by them while celebrating human creativity and determination.

It had been due to open in 2020 but was delayed due to the covid-19 pandemic and the closure of the museum for roof repairs.

Adam Westcott, 61, from Waltham St Lawrence, is among the exhibitors.

Twenty-three years ago he was at work cleaning bird droppings off a building. The next day he felt ill with a bad headache.

He went to hospital three times over the next few weeks but was sent home each time.

On his fourth visit, a doctor diagnosed him with Herpes simplex encephalitis, a virus that he had caught from the droppings.

He said: “It went up my nose and into my brain. They left it so long it caused the damage.”

For his artwork, called Nailed It, he recreated an image of his brain scan by hammering different coloured nails into a piece of wood into the same shape. He also made the plinth.

Mr Westcott said: “I’m not an artist but I knew what to do. Holding the nails with a pair of tiny pliers, that was the hardest bit. It looks all right. It looks how I hoped it would look.” His wife, Jane, said: “I saw it when he first started it at home and he took it to Headway to complete. It’s really good.”

Mrs Westcott said the exhibition was important in raising awareness of the effects of a brain injury.

She said: “There should be more things like this. When people have a broken arm you can see that but you can’t see inside someone’s head. It’s all the things people experience that you don’t realise.”

Mr Westcott said that since his injury he had relied a lot on his family, particularly his wife.

He said: “They were going to put me in a home. My missus said: ‘No, I’ll take him.’ She does a lot for me. She puts up with me.”

Dennis Hopkins, 66, was hit by a car while crossing the road about six years ago. His audio recording, called My Life, is his account of the accident, being airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and spending eight-and-a-half months at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading recovering.

His memory was badly affected by the incident as he would wake up every day not knowing where he was.

In the recording, he describes being visited by his wife in hospital but immediately forgetting about it after she had left and calling her to ask her to come to see him.

“She’s my rock, I don’t know what I would do without her,” he said.

Mr Hopkins is now unable to go out by himself as he would become lost and can no longer read, which he says is very distressing as he used to love books. He now listens to audio books.

He cannot remember making the recording. “I couldn’t remember a word I said,” he said. “It’s like listening to someone else.”

Bob Black, 69, from Maidenhead, suffered a brain injury after an accident in his mid-twenties. Before, he had been very active, playing first team rugby for Trojans in Southampton alongside squash and badminton.

He said he had lost motivation after his accident and became isolated.

He made his artwork, called My Brain Hurts, in 2020, with the help of Headway volunteer Ana Olarou, who is a sculptor.

Together, they made a cast of a brain and poured in plaster of Paris, which set.

Mr Black poured a small amount of red acrylic paint into the bottom of the cast to represent the brain damage that he suffered with an explosion of black cocktail sticks coming out of it.

He said: “The damage was small but the impact was big.”

He said his wife Karen was his “rock” in supporting him since his accident.

Barbara Moir, from Reading, attended the launch of the exhibition. She said: “My husband had a brain injury after a cycling accident and Headway were wonderful supporting both of us.

“I don’t know if he would have recovered as well as he did without everything they do.

“The exhibition is very moving because it reminds me, it’s instant. My husband was cycling, he hit a pothole and his life changed.

“So many say the same thing but it’s very life-affirming how people recover and build a new life.

“The colours are very bold and strong and people are being assertive with the lives that they’ve got.”

Philippa Rocks, a supervisor at Headway, who completed an art degree last year, made a shiny geometric shape from MDF with mirrored tiles on top supported by a scaffolding pole.

The shape, which is one of a suite of four, represents her body angle as she observed clients at Headway. She encourages visitors to the exhibition to move around it and bend down to look at the reflections it creates.

Mrs Rocks said: “It’s putting yourself in a different perspective, like people with brain injuries have to look at their lives from different perspectives.”

Jenny Bell, 40, from Stoke Row, who is the music therapist at Headway, helped put together a song which can be listened to on headphones.

She said: “We went on board the Rivertime Boat Trust’s boat and all wrote a song together in an acrostic style. Now it’s one of our traditions to sing it when we have new volunteers.

“It’s about what Headway means to you. The words are really beautiful — they came up with it, I just helped put it together. It has got a steady rhythm and a melody to accompany it.

“Music is a really good outlet for so many emotions, whether it’s the repetition of songs in group music or a song that triggers memory and how that makes you feel.”

Rebecca Evans, Headway’s art therapist, said doing art helped people with a brain injury.

She said: “It takes them to another place, where they can forget about their issues and their troubles as they are immersed in art. I’m really impressed with what they have done.”

Jamie Higgins, Headway general manager, urged people to visit the exhibition.

He said: “You will gain an insight into brain injury and I think it would be helpful for our clients if more people knew about it. And, of course, it’s nice if more people know about out charity.”

• Living With Brain Injury is in the community gallery at the River & Museum until August 18. Entry is included with admission to the museum.