From the Ashes

by Caspar Walsh

When I was 8 years old I had to start wearing glasses. I'd been edging nearer and nearer to the blackboard. Keen to learn but less and less able to make out the ever blurring chalk letters, the teachers had noticed. The glasses were ordered. I was horrified and teased .

Rather than wear these NHS specs in class, I bunked off school.

Rather than aimlessly wander the streets of London, I headed for Exhibition Road in South Ken. For two weeks I immersed myself in the story of the earth in the Natural History Museum, the mechanics of the universe at the Science Museum and the incredible art created throughout the world at the V&A. This was back in the day when a kid with long hair wandering around on his own during term time wasn't much noticed. I've visited exhibition spaces around the world ever since.

48 years later I’m in this beautiful old room, exhausted, excited. We're setting up. This is our space for the next week at The Poly in Falmouth in Cornwall, curating our first exhibition of our community's work, celebrating the 8 participants from our 2023 Creative Pathways programme.

I’ve held a hidden dream to do this for longer than I realised.

Pulling together and exhibiting this inspiring, heartfelt work. Our collective healing journeys expressed through film, words, photography, illustration, music, collage and natural materials.

There is a belief that art and creativity is for the rare, talented few; the famous filmmakers, musicians and artists. What we created for this exhibition may not be by those who've spent a lifetime practicing and producing their craft but it has no less power. Ours is a beauty and connection born from exploring complex lives through a particular lense. Lives many of us never thought we'd live to see. The honesty and tenderness lights up the space as good as any exhibition I've visited over the last 5 decades.

Our show in Falmouth, launching our recovery community in Cornwall, is about drawing in the curious and starting a conversation with the local community about the impacts of addiction and how we can rise from ashes to visibility to freedom. And we celebrate that with such amazing courage, creativity and love.