Dementia “Glass Mind” Sculpture

The Ironworks is partnering with South West Yorkshire NHS Foundation Trust to create a new sculpture to support dementia services and education.

South West Yorkshire NHS Foundation Trust requested that we help them create a sculpture that would enable and encourage a deeper understanding of dementia.

This piece will also act as a memorial for people who have family members and/or friends who have suffered from dementia, and we hope that we can provide an opportunity for the public to remember and honour someone who has suffered from, and may have passed from, this awful disease.

We were asked to come up with a concept for how this might be delivered.

After lots of thought and brainstorming, we came up with the “Glass Mind”, which we hope will be made up from a possible 100,00 vials.

The vials that we use to create the “Glass Mind” will hopefully be donated to us by the NHS as these are items they use every day.

Once created, we will offer the public a chance to fill the “Glass Mind”.  The public may write notes written on red love hearts, pop them into vials, then place those vials inside the “Glass Mind”.

The “Glass Mind” will be placed on a column in a public area for all to see and interact with.

This sculpture is entirely unique: nothing like this has ever been done before.

Its transparency and fragility reflects the mind and its vulnerabilities.