What does it mean to you?
Below are responses shared by 2024 exhibitors, visitors and planners. Scroll to the bottom of the page to add yours.
A celebration of artists of all backgrounds, highlighting the importance of mental health experiences!
I love being a part of the exhibition, long may it continue. :)
To me this exhibition means forgetting about other people's expectations and focussing on your own instead, working out what works best for you to express how you live: 'You Are Good Enough'. :)
That I am not alone.
The encouragement I needed to paint again after 26 years.
As a queer, POC (Person Of Colour), autistic woman I feel so seen.
It made me realise how many of us human beings have mental health challenges as part of us. It helped me feel more at home in the world.
Fab show!
Well done everyone involved.
Loved the knitted emotion spiral.
So relatable - consistency is an impossible goal, it feels like.
And that's all.
The OOSOOM exhibition is a good platform for people suffering with poor mental health.
It gives us a voice and any art form is a powerful tool.
I’m happy to be a part of this.
A showcase of art from those whose inner worlds often go unseen. My partner has a piece in the exhibition again too!
I feel included, as opposed to invisible and happy to be a part of Out Of Sight Out Of Mind.
Thank you from Fair Advice. Great artwork.
This exhibition saved my life!
The art is very emotional. I love the art because every piece offers something incredible. The art also helps others such as my mum feel better.
I feel less alone.
Thank you so much. The art is beautiful, and emotions are raw. Every exhibitor should be so proud.
A lot of the pieces really connect. It’s an amazing collection and really good to see so many artists and mental health groups represented. Well done all!
Just thank you for seeing us.
It is inspiring.
The paintings and videos are all very nice. My favourite was the video about cows in Zimbabwe. It was interesting and pretty. I loved listening to the artists beautiful voice.
Very inspiring! Thank you for sharing.
Greetings from Hamburg.
It’s nice to see how people express themselves.
It reminds me of the beauty we can find in humans, which I sometimes forget. Thank you to the beautiful artists.
Sometimes I have more faith in humanity.
I feel part of a community.
A really special event, full of courage and care. Thank you to all the artists and organisers.
Thank you for sharing your darkness with the light.
I feel I have the capacity to develop my skills of art/photography and that I have potential in all I do.
It feels good to be part of something special.
Thank you so much for being in my life. Everything now appears so much more brighter when I’m with you.
Thank you for walking out of your shell to see me and bring me a colourful autumn. Thank you for trusting me and letting me go inside your room. I will never let your room burn again and we could plant a lot of lovely plants there. I never imagined I could build such a beautiful connection with people before. But now I get more belief in walking into a brighter and prettier future with you. And I’m not alone anymore.
All jobs are great! Thank you so much for your talent and inspiration. I love you all!
I feel not lonely being a person who had struggled. Great exhibition. Thanks.
The art motivates me especially when it’s about difficult subjects like mental health.
Well done to all of the amazing artists, this is an incredible exhibition. But well done especially to the piece called ‘Invisible’. I feel moved.
I have bipolar affective disorder and not very many people know about it so I feel ‘invisible’. But when it gets bad and I’m manic, everyone knows and all of a sudden, I am ‘visible’. This exhibition makes me feel seen.
I feel seen and ace.
It was such a wonderful experience I really felt ‘free’ and playful. The facilitators are so very helpful and inspiring. (from workshop)
The true genius is in recognising the invisible and making it visible. Great job everyone.
Being kind to myself.
I have been greatly moved by this exhibition. God bless everyone who took part. With God’s shalom peace and comfort.
Thought provoking.
I could connect with a lot of the exhibitions as I have and am still on my own journey. It is nice to see the creative side of mental health and what can be achieved. Day at a time. Baby steps.
It’s emotion evoking. Will I sleep tonight? Well done everyone. It’s good to know I’m not alone.
Love.
I feel more encouraged to share my stories. And reading and seeing others’ experiences is healing my own.
Your courage inspires us all.
Thank you beautiful people.
Bursting at the seams. We are here.
Great job, everyone! People with mental health problems are very talented and creative thank you!
It’s a cool little exhibition. I enjoyed it. Thanks!
Is the way to show that we are not done. Thank you everyone for creative such a beautiful exhibition.
I have seen your greatness, the strength of your will, what it took you to get this far is what will take you further still.
So much self-awareness, very impressed. Thanks.
Feeling acknowledged.
I feel seen, thank you.
I see you. Courage! Thank you.
This exhibition changed my life. Greetings from Uzbekistan.
Translucent darkness, hope shining through, a bit of me in a part of you. Colourful depiction of universal struggles. Humanity, vulnerability, powerful emotions.
Friendship.
Thank you for promoting visibility of people with mental health issues.
Community.
A welcome space for us all to be visible. Inspiring, heartbreaking, beautiful, challenging, engaging, heroic, and so much love.
You are all now visible. As you should be. Thanks for sharing.
Opportunity, learning, inspiration – passion, freedom of expression, hope! Thank you for the space to dedication.
You’re inspirational.
Blown away by this show. Such great art from the heart and a wonderful platform for all these voices about what people are feeling and needing. More of this!
Thank you to all the exhibitors for helping me feel much less isolated and showing the opportunities for self-expression, but most importantly ‘you are enough’.
To the artists that created and inspired, you are fantastic! Thank you, keep it up, but most of all – you got this!
An explosion of creative expression! The space to be, to let creativity announce its beauty, shadows – all of it. Thank you!
Beautiful vulnerability. The unsayable stuff turned into bodily experience. Thanks for this exhibition.
Such diversity of talent and lived experiences – it will take me some time to decide what this means to me. Thank you for sharing with such honesty.
Strong, brave, and amazing.
So inspiring! Thanks for sharing. I feel like I have found a friend in each of you.
The exhibition gets better every year.
Included!
Catharsis. Thanks for reminding me that I’m loved and that I should look for help.
Space.
Thank you!
I needed this today. Thank you.
Try not to give up on life today.
Continue making art.
Connection and understanding.
Amazing exhibition.
Nice to see normalisation of things I really struggle with – I’m not alone and I love seeing that.
I also have mental issues: anxiety, PTSD, ADHD and a bit of autism. This exhibition gave me hope and I felt like part of the family. Thank you.
The art is very emotional. I love the art because every piece offers something incredible. The art also helps others such as my mum feel better.
The paintings and videos are all very nice. My favourite was the video about cows in Zimbabwe. It was interesting and pretty. I loved listening to the artists beautiful voice. Very inspiring! Thank you for sharing. Greetings from Hamburg.
Love from everyone, everywhere. Thank you for hosting this exhibition.
As a late diagnosed autistic woman, with so much trauma, I feel so seen. We are not broken, we are wonderful just as we are.
I love the art.
A beautifully curated collection of different pieces in different mediums. Showing so many different experiences of feeling invisible/visible. I found it very impactful, thought provoking, sad and hopeful. Thank you.
I’m a late diagnosed autistic, pansexual person and I can’t help but be highly inspired by all the exhibits here. OOSOOM keeps getting better every year.
I’m looking for happiness.
Art has saved me mentally for most of my life. This is my second year exhibiting and I hopefully will be volunteering next year.
Glad to be part of it.
Moving, powerful and emotive.
Supporting my friend(s).
Thanks to everyone who put their time, effort, authenticity, vulnerabilities and who put THEMSELEVES to this important exhibition.
My third year coming here. Never fail to be moved, comforted, inspired by all the amazing artworks. Thanks for making these nuanced experiences that are shared by so many of us, visible.
Wonderful!
I particularly like the ones with cute animals.
Insightful!
I like the art.
I like the art too.
I like the art three.
Thanks everyone. Love it.
Not many words – just awe and connection. Some artworks were very relatable and they made me fee less alone.
Thank you for sharing your vulnerabilities with us. It feels like a gift and you led the way.
Thank you. I am less alone and completely inspired.
It is my first year as an exhibitor at OOSOOM as part of a group piece created by members of Catch 23’s Art Group a support service delivered by Western Isles Association for Mental Health. I had heard good things from others who had visited and had seen previous year’s OOSOOM exhibitions online.
I haven’t travelled from my Scottish Island home of Lewis much since Covid (due to issues with anxiety) so making the journey to Edinburgh to deliver the precious cargo of 12-pieces of artwork felt like a proper pilgrimage. But nothing really prepared me for the intensity of the seeing the exhibition in person…
Summerhall is such a great venue to showcase this diverse body of work and a great deal of thought and care had obviously been invested into deciding what to exhibit where. Like all art exhibitions there was some work that I resonated more with than others on a personal level but all of the work provoked a response in me and I am still processing some of the work I’ve seen 3 days later!
As someone who has spent much of my life sticking out whilst desperately wanting to blend in this exhibition is one of the few places and spaces where it feels safe to both be yourself and express whatever parts of yourself that you want to be seen. CAPS and OOSOOM both embody the spirit of inclusion, which when done right (which this exhibition is a great example of) not only creates something beautiful, special and unique but helps transform lives. Thank you for giving me, and members of the Catch 23 Arts Group, the opportunity to take part in this very important Mental Health event.
A lot of the pieces really connect.
I feel I was given permission to partake in a lot of controlled demolition, sharing my own experiences to feel closer to a whole lot of people I have never and may never meet. But that I do. I am proud to have shared a piece of myself alongside so many other brilliant people. Love to all.
I’m an evil crazy genius. X
A really special event, full of courage and care. Thank you to all the artists and organisers.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. Great that a space has been created to witness these.
Look at that heron. Brilliant.
Do You Agree?
It feels, to me,
To be longing
Is so much less pleasing
Thant it is to belonging
With and to someone who cares
How are you feeling.
Woman in Orbit is my favourite painting.
Thank you for letting us experience love.
Genuine diversity! Authenticity! Inspiration.
If you are a visitor to the exhibition, an exhibitor, a friend or relative of one, a project partner or anyone else at all, we would be pleased to hear what this exhibition means to you.
Once received by the OOSOOM team, your response will be shared anonymously here on the website, and may be used in our work as we share with others what this exhibition means to people.