Anita Wadsworth - Show and Tell

Hidden Secrets

I was waiting as arranged in the Whitgift Centre before meeting with Anita Wadsworth for the 1:1 Performance, Show and Tell. Once we met she reassured me that we would not get disturbed. It felt the most natural thing in the world to sit around a picnic blanket and unpack my stuff with her in a quiet corner! Perhaps we had the Royal Wedding to thank , for there were hardly any people in the centre. ’Its an exercise in decluttering’ she explained, unpacking her own bag as I unpacked mine.

Anita got me to write labels for my things, she wrote labels for hers and then we swapped them around until we arrived at a found poem.
Then I arranged my stuff in a Union Jack shape and took a polaroid photograph; I couldn’t not talk about The Wedding! We reflected on Mental Health Awareness week, and how the younger Royals campaign on that topic.

I took a small polaroid of my stuff, put it next to the label ‘Hidden Secrets’. We ate some grapes and chatted about knitting, anxiety, shopping addiction, postnatal depression and other mental health issues. It certainly broke the ice.

Despite the contents of my bag weighing in at nearly a kilo,(one of Anita’s belongings was a set of scales!) my bag felt lighter when I picked it up again.

Anita Wadsworth ‘its about sitting on the floor in a shopping centre and being allowed to do that, allowed to rest.’ 

Review by Jo Bodley