Oh I Love That - A selection of Diary Drawings by Bobby Baker
Oh I Love That
A selection of Diary Drawings by Bobby Baker
“During the 11 years that I was caught up in the mental health system I made over 700 drawings in 62 sketchbooks. These drawings have been celebrated over time – following a major exhibition of digitised prints at Wellcome Collection in 2009, a book, now sold out, and extensive touring.
But I've had all the sketchbooks sitting in my studio in boxes ever since then. They're a great worry because only some of them have been digitised. It takes ages to wade through all the books, and I’ve always wanted to share the images more widely – to help change the way mental distress is understood and people are cared for – and to bring hope of survival, understanding and laughter into the arena.
So I was delighted to finally secure funding to digitise the entire collection.
My story is one of survival. I'm extremely lucky. Making these drawings and sharing them with people helped me hugely – to make sense of what had happened to me, to see injustice, trauma and abuse in plain sight – and to claim autonomy and independence.
I’ve tried to use them politically and contribute to the global campaign for change. But I was feeling the burden of that in selecting this collection of drawings for Outside In. ‘What can I do as an individual? How can I help right so much that is wrong?’
But then I noticed that when I looked at some drawings, every time I just say ‘Oh, I love that.’ So I chose these 17 drawings because every time I look at them, they make me think – ‘Oh I love that, I love drawing, it helped save my life’.” Bobby Baker
Bobby Baker’s Diary Drawings document eleven years of ups and downs in her mental and physical health. They show the many challenges of negotiating the mental health system while maintaining her artistic practice, and some autonomy, alongside her path to recovery. In doing so, they also reveal much about Baker’s everyday family life, work as an artist, and her breast cancer diagnosis, while demonstrating that amid the harrowing stuff of her life, humour was an ever-present force.
In early 2022, an opportunity to digitise all 61 sketchbooks of Diary Drawings made it possible for Baker to see the works in their entirety for the first time. This extensive bank of over 700 drawings – consistently varied and inventive in both subject matter and style – naturally invites the possibility for numerous readings, interpretations, themes and references and opens up new means for appraising the work.
Last summer, a collection of Diary Drawings became the central focus for one of our Exploring Collections courses – giving six artists the opportunity to research, interpret and respond to Baker’s work.
The digitisation of the drawings, the Exploring Collections course and this exhibition have been made possible through a project grant awarded to Bobby Baker.
Bobby Baker (b. 1950, Kent) lives and works in London. She graduated from Painting at St. Martins School of Art (1972) and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Queen Mary University London.
Baker’s acclaimed intersectional feminist practice includes performance, drawing, and installation, and persistently exposes the undervalued and stigmatised aspects of women’s daily lives, this is exemplified by pioneering works such as Drawing on a Mother’s Experience (1988), Kitchen Show (1991), The Diary Drawings (1997–2008) and more recently Great and Tiny War (2018).
Since 1995 she has led the organisation Daily Life Ltd. to make art that explores and celebrates everyday life and human behaviour and collaborate with like-minded artists and organisations across the arts, health, and disability sectors.
A selection of Diary Drawings by Bobby Baker
“During the 11 years that I was caught up in the mental health system I made over 700 drawings in 62 sketchbooks. These drawings have been celebrated over time – following a major exhibition of digitised prints at Wellcome Collection in 2009, a book, now sold out, and extensive touring.
But I've had all the sketchbooks sitting in my studio in boxes ever since then. They're a great worry because only some of them have been digitised. It takes ages to wade through all the books, and I’ve always wanted to share the images more widely – to help change the way mental distress is understood and people are cared for – and to bring hope of survival, understanding and laughter into the arena.
So I was delighted to finally secure funding to digitise the entire collection.
My story is one of survival. I'm extremely lucky. Making these drawings and sharing them with people helped me hugely – to make sense of what had happened to me, to see injustice, trauma and abuse in plain sight – and to claim autonomy and independence.
I’ve tried to use them politically and contribute to the global campaign for change. But I was feeling the burden of that in selecting this collection of drawings for Outside In. ‘What can I do as an individual? How can I help right so much that is wrong?’
But then I noticed that when I looked at some drawings, every time I just say ‘Oh, I love that.’ So I chose these 17 drawings because every time I look at them, they make me think – ‘Oh I love that, I love drawing, it helped save my life’.” Bobby Baker
Bobby Baker’s Diary Drawings document eleven years of ups and downs in her mental and physical health. They show the many challenges of negotiating the mental health system while maintaining her artistic practice, and some autonomy, alongside her path to recovery. In doing so, they also reveal much about Baker’s everyday family life, work as an artist, and her breast cancer diagnosis, while demonstrating that amid the harrowing stuff of her life, humour was an ever-present force.
In early 2022, an opportunity to digitise all 61 sketchbooks of Diary Drawings made it possible for Baker to see the works in their entirety for the first time. This extensive bank of over 700 drawings – consistently varied and inventive in both subject matter and style – naturally invites the possibility for numerous readings, interpretations, themes and references and opens up new means for appraising the work.
Last summer, a collection of Diary Drawings became the central focus for one of our Exploring Collections courses – giving six artists the opportunity to research, interpret and respond to Baker’s work.
The digitisation of the drawings, the Exploring Collections course and this exhibition have been made possible through a project grant awarded to Bobby Baker.
Bobby Baker (b. 1950, Kent) lives and works in London. She graduated from Painting at St. Martins School of Art (1972) and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Queen Mary University London.
Baker’s acclaimed intersectional feminist practice includes performance, drawing, and installation, and persistently exposes the undervalued and stigmatised aspects of women’s daily lives, this is exemplified by pioneering works such as Drawing on a Mother’s Experience (1988), Kitchen Show (1991), The Diary Drawings (1997–2008) and more recently Great and Tiny War (2018).
Since 1995 she has led the organisation Daily Life Ltd. to make art that explores and celebrates everyday life and human behaviour and collaborate with like-minded artists and organisations across the arts, health, and disability sectors.
