At 10am this morning Rose Ruane presents ‘Wing of Glass‘
A radio slips between stations. From static, a voice emerges, reading an elliptical, fragmentary text, interpolated with birdsong, improvised music and sounds of private acts performed in public spaces.
The performed text is from a copy of Institutional and Schizophrenia: A Comparative Study of Three Mental Hospitals 1960-68.
The medical/authoritative voice has been erased using Tippex, leaving a poetic, Beckettian remainder which gradually coalesces into a description of the collective experience of those who were compelled to live long-term at Netherne hospital and an emotional, evocative exploration of power structures, dailiness and creativity in the experimental art therapy studio there.
Rose Ruane is an artist and writer, living and working in Glasgow. Her debut novel This Is Yesterday was published by Corsair books, with a second to follow in summer 2024.
She has made radio work for Radio Scotland, Radio 3 and Radiophrenia and is currently finishing a SGSAH funded PhD at Glasgow University exploring The Adamson Collection: work created during the C20th, in the art therapy studio at Netherne mental hospital, by individuals who were compelled to live there.
‘Wing of Glass’ was created in collaboration with a sound artist working under the name Local Teenagers.