Imelda Blake was a photographer whose love of jazz drew her to the jazz clubs of London in the sixties. Her quirky sense of humour made her an outsider, and she felt most at home as a manic depressive where her comedy and laughter were most accepted.
When Imelda returned to Ronnie Scotts Jazz club in London she was struck by the sadness of the place and the numbers of people who were on the walls and no longer alive. We went together to Friern Barnet in the afternoon and Imelda was delighted by her memories of her time spent there. 'Living is often about loss' , she said, and quoting quintessential New York Comedian, Lennie Bruce said, 'You don't mind dying if you've got a natural sense of rhythm.'
These two friezes (linked from below) represent Imelda's response to the time she spent as a photographer and the time she spent as an inmate at Friern Barnet Hospital.