I’ve Got Ideas. Don’t You Worry

The film I’ve Got Ideas. Don’t You Worry. (2023, 27 min) is a statement of presence, revealing the working processes of 29 people across seven days at Project Art Works’ studio in Hastings. It plays across three banks of monitors, foregrounding people and relationships against a backdrop of image-making.

Image: FILM STILL-10, Maya and George, I’ve Got Ideas. Don’t You Worry, 2023

Project Art Works aims to disrupt the entrenched power dynamics of inclusion; to enable people who depend on support in many areas of life to represent themselves on their own terms.

The studio offers a freeing, non-hierarchical environment in which wordless languages are amplified. Materials – interactions with and through them – reveal the essence of each person. The brush of ink across paper, a screech of peeling tape, the words ‘I love you’ – any of these might be a way to say ‘I am here’.

Image: FILM STILL-8, Heidi and Patricia, I’ve Got Ideas. Don’t You Worry, 2023

This self-revelation, the responsiveness to it and the vulnerability to sit in a place of ‘not knowing’ are the foundations of the work, building trust between artists/makers, facilitators, support workers, advocates and families, in the studio and beyond. The work depends on enabling people to make choices, and creating an environment in which those choices can be realised.

The paintings framing the screens are outputs of the processes represented in the film, played out over many years. Other outputs manifest beyond the gallery. The value and impact of being seen on one’s own terms – in and out of the studio – drives change in life and in the systems that support us.

Understanding, visibility, representation – and the work towards this – are fundamental.