Turning People into Billboards
At the end of February, the RETHiNK Grant dared the people of Auckland to develop a creative project that reduces mental-health stigma and discrimination. Like Minds, Like Mine at Mind & Body Consultants received nearly 40 applications for The Grant and Joshua Gerbault’s RETHiNK: Ethosphere proposal came second.
When Gerbault first found out about the RETHiNK Grant, he was working at Te Karanga, a community gallery, looking for a way to run an art project that would serve both the community and the gallery itself. RETHiNK came along at just the right time. For Gerbault, “It seemed like an excellent opportunity to work on a project that would normally be out of my financial reach and really meant something to me.”
RETHiNK: Ethosphere invites artists of Aotearoa to submit visual designs that explore the theme ‘RETHiNK Madness.’ Artists have just one month to design images that encourage viewers to think about madness and provide a platform for positive dialogue around the issue. The best 10 destigmatising images will be screen-printed onto limited edition handmade T-shirts. “To me, T-shirts represent a global culture that is inclusive of all ages, sexes, ethnic heritage, abilities and socio-cultural backgrounds – anyone can wear a T-shirt,” says Gerbault. The project embodies an entire ethos focused on community connection and awareness – wherever possible materials are obtained from organic and/or sustainable sources. Organic T-shirts will become walking billboards, encouraging people to rethink madness wherever the wearer goes.
Limited-edition T-shirts and prints will be exhibited and auctioned at Te Karanga Gallery from the 19th of August to the 1st of September. A second-edition run of T-shirts will be re-launched during Mental Health Awareness Week at the RETHiNK Theatre Challenge.
For Gerbault, “The best bit of all, is that this is an excellent opportunity to take part in a unique event, in which I can play an active part in helping to reduce the stigma and discrimination.” What is great about this project, is that it also invites others to play a similarly active role in creating social change around our attitudes to mental unwellness.
To get involved
Email rethink.ethosphere@gmail.com or visit www.rethinkgrant.co.nz for more information.
Media Enquiries: Contact Taimi Allan
Team Leader: Like Minds, Like Mine, Mind & Body Consultants
Ph (09) 630 5909 ext 870 / E: taimi@mindandbody.co.nz
Get Involved
Te Karanga invites artists to submit a creative and positive design to help encourage people to rethink madness. From the submissions, 10 designs will be selected for use in the campaign. Final images will encourage people to challenge the stigma they may have around mental disorder/madness by providing a platform where a creative and positive dialogue can be generated around the issue. We believe that the front of a t shirt is a great place to advertise and normalise these ideas
You can use words, drawings or photographs to create your design. The key ideas are rethink and mental illness, what do they mean to you?
Submissions are due Thursday the 8th of July.
Email your submission to rethink.ethosphere@gmail.com
What’s in it for you?
As a selected artist, you will receive a limited edition screen print of your winning design, a $50 koha and two limited edition hand-printed T-shirts – one of your own design and one of the other selected designs.
Your work will be exhibited in a well-known art gallery; if you can’t make it to the opening we will email you photos of your work in the gallery space.
This is an excellent opportunity to take part in a unique event, to help reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with mental ‘illness’ and to get your art out there in the public eye; both via the media attention this project is set to receive and via the T-shirts themselves.
Submissions must be:
- Sent via email to rethink.ethosphere@gmail.com
- Titled “ artist name_title”
- A single-colour design (so we can turn your design into an image we can screen print)
- No larger than A3 in size
- 300dpi
- Jpeg or PDF format
- If you have worked on your image in Photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator please also send the file in that format
- 10MB
Terms and conditions
- Te Karanga Trust owns copyright of the final selected images and is free to reproduce them into the future for the purposes of the RETHiNK Ethosphere project.
- Like Minds, Like Mine & Mind and Body Consultants are free to use RETHiNK Ethosphere images for promotional purposes.
- Te Karanga Trust will acknowledge & promote artists as the original creators of the images.
- Te Karanga Trust will give a $50 koha, a Limited Edition print, and two free T-shirts, to the artists who submit the 10 best images.
- Te Karanga Trust & the Like Minds, Like Mine team at Mind and Body Consultants will judge the submissions and select the 10 best designs. Their decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Artists are free to re-use their original images as they see fit, after the initial RETHiNK Ethosphere exhibition has finished.
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