Soul Deep

The Soul-Deep Arts Project is a collaboration between medical researchers from the “SouL-DeEP” study and 7 young artists.

The Soul-Deep Arts Project was a collaboration between medical researchers from the ‘SouL-DeEP’ (South London Diabetes and Ethnicity Phenotyping) study and seven young artists. SouL-DeEP is a detailed scientific study which examines the development of type 2 diabetes in the local black African population. As researchers, we are aware that diabetes is a diagnosis associated with significant stigma, and that ethnic minorities are labelled as ‘difficult to engage’ in medical research. The Soul-Deep Arts project aimed to challenge this narrative, by celebrating the huge contribution which the local community has made to SouL-DeEP.

The outputs from the study – including MRI images, scans and graphs – were used as source data by the artists to create their individual pieces. Each artist had a different response – from James Heighway’s innovative audio interpretation of the data points, to Joseph Ijoyemi’s bold re-working of MRI images in ‘DiAfriScan’ and Lydia Treend’s melting wax candles to represent the unique spirit of each participant.

In November 2018, researchers and study participants and their friends and families gathered to enjoy the exhibited pieces at the GX Gallery in Camberwell. The event was described as ‘creative’, ‘inspiring’ and ‘unique’. We hope that by sharing our work in this way, we can encourage more people from under-represented groups to become involved in research and thereby improve health outcomes in the diverse ethnic mix of south London.

Film coming soon.