This participatory installation, developed through a series of workshops facilitated by artist Rachel Fitzpatrick, explores processes of reframing identity and experience following acquired brain injury (ABI). Employing an arts-based participatory action research methodology the project engaged individuals with ABI and their carers across two sites in Ireland, ABI Ireland Clubhouse in Dún Laoghaire) and Brain Injury Matters, NI in Belfast. Participants collaboratively devised techniques for creating origami “brains,” producing over 9,000 individual paper forms that constitute the final installation.

The work is spatially configured in looping, ripple-like formations, evoking the cyclical and non-linear nature of rehabilitation journeys. Colour operates as a critical narrative device within the piece: vibrant tones dominate, reflecting positive memories and forward momentum, while darker hues acknowledge challenge without privileging negativity. Notably, black is excluded as a symbolic rejection of fixed negativity, and white is omitted to represent the transitional period immediately following trauma, when individuals begin to reconcile loss and reorient their lives.

Installed as the fifth iteration of the project during Creative Brain Week 2025 at the Naughton Institute, Trinity College Dublin, the work was reconfigured in response to the architectural context. A subtle blue line traverses the composition, signifying the often-invisible nature of brain injury. Through collective making and evolving material confidence, the installation foregrounds embodied experience, hidden disability. It hopes to demonstrate the transformative potential of creative practice in fostering agency, connection and re-narration of lived experience.

This section contains: images of the installation, links to a workshop session in both ABI Ireland & Brain Injury Matters, a link opening event in Trinity, video of the installation and a video of the final piece.

Photography credit | Gareth Chaney