Black Men's Minds

Capturing unheard voices

Black Men’s Minds is a stream-of-consciousness style exploration of masculinity, race, and mental health. The piece explores the voices of black men, who are often missing in the conversations surrounding mental health. As a first-generation black man growing up in the UK and trained as a psychotherapist, the artist Stephen Rudder was acutely aware of the psychological tensions unique to black men. The visual elements in the piece incorporate symbolic associations derived from collage and poetry workshops on themes of masculinity and power, social pressures, personal experiences, and the mental health system.

The narrative fuses extracts from black men’s personal insights and experiences, whilst the score uses musical scales obtained from the frequencies derived from compounds in psychotropic medications. The resulting work bears testimony to black men’s voices and collective experiences, weaving together meditations on power and culture.

Medium: Video

Year: 2019–2022

Process

Ideas and thoughts developed over the four days of the workshops displayed as mind maps.

Participants selecting images and building their collages during the workshop.

The group participating in free writing exercises as well as Jamille Malcolm and Hani Malcolm Ibrahim performing their poetry at the workshop.

Stephen Rudder and Richard Edwards experimenting with the visuals and production of music for the final video installation.

Team

Stephen Rudder

Artist and Psychotherapist

Born in London to Caribbean parents, Stephen Rudder is an award-winning audio-visual artist and psychotherapist. He holds a Masters in Psychoanalytic Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and is completing his senior clinical training at Tavistock NHS Trust.
Under the name Quiet Voice, his art practice combines diverse and often unheard voices with multimedia to bring a quality of deep insight to his work. Underlying all of Rudder’s work is a passion to create brave spaces for community collaboration which reveal and platform unheard voices. His work has been recognised by UNESCO, the Wellcome Trust, Museum of London and Science Gallery London.

Richard Edwards

Composer

Richard Edwards has spent many years composing music for documentaries. He holds a Masters of Arts in Music Composition, specialising in using electronic sound design with acoustic instruments. His work has been recognised internationally and was featured in the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

D-Fuse

D-Fuse are a London-based artist collective who work across a range of media. Founded in the mid-1990s by Michael Faulkner, D-Fuse’s output encompasses installations, film, experimental documentary, photography, live cinema performances and architectural projects.