YoungMinds and Livity Highlight Mental Health Crisis with Devastating Art Installation

Youth mental health charity, YoungMinds has unveiled a new sculpture in Kings Cross station developed in partnership with creative agency, Livity, and co-created with over 1000 young people. The work highlights the public’s role in supporting young people through this crisis and urges the Government to adopt a bolder approach to youth mental health services.                            

In this latest brand activation, ‘Crushed by a Million Pressures’, Livity was tasked with making the mental health crisis tangible to the public in response to mental health referrals hitting more than 1 million for the third consecutive year. The sculpture is constructed from thousands of objects, each representing a driver of the youth mental health crisis, including social media, poverty and academic pressures. The objects have been created in partnership with young people, designed with quotes and statistics that depict the pressures they face in society today.

Throughout the day the public were encouraged to remove and examine the objects. As this happened, a sculpture of a hopeful young person was slowly revealed, symbolising the role we can all take in supporting young people to navigate mental health by helping them remove certain pressures.

The sculpture was placed at Kings Cross station for one day only. Additionally, an OOH campaign will run nationwide featuring commentary from young people who took part in the research and development of the art installation.

Laura Bunt, chief executive officer at YoungMinds commented, “Mental health is one of the biggest issues impacting young people’s lives. We need to bring the pressures that young people are under into sharp focus, whilst ensuring that young voices remain at the heart of our work. With their wealth of experience in co-creation and their unrivalled knowledge of the world of young people, Livity was the obvious choice for this campaign.”

Livity has been collaborating with Young Minds since 2013, and together in April unveiled a rebrand to reach more young people and amplify marginalised voices.

Alex Goat, chief executive officer at Livity added, "From working directly with young people we understand first-hand the crippling pressures they are facing every day that can affect their mental health. Our partnership with YoungMinds has been long standing and it's been an absolute privilege to lead this important piece of work with them. We wanted to create something out there in the real world that will mobilise people to act with and for young people by changing the outlook for them for good."

Yumna Zahid, a young designer involved with the campaign said, “As a creative, I always try to direct my projects towards meaningful causes that have a positive impact. I believe even small contributions can make a big difference which is why getting involved in this project was a no brainer for me! I loved the whole campaign concept and its focus on the specific factors affecting young people's mental health. The issue I addressed in my piece personally resonated with me as a Muslim woman, making my involvement in this campaign even more rewarding!”