Jason and the Adventure of 254 at the Wellcome Collection

I had personally not been to the Wellcome Collection in London, which is a free museum and library that focuses a lot on health! There are a bunch of exhibitions, collections, talks, and different events going on, which all aim at supporting science that solves the urgent health challenges people are facing. I have a friend who’s very much interested in health and healthcare, and visits the Wellcome Collection from time to time. She took me to see the Jason and the Adventure of 254 time limited exhibition!

Jason and the Adventure of 254 is a colorful and larger than life exhibition which tells the story of Jason, who basically grew up in Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, in 1980. Jason Wilsher-Mills was 11 years old when he was admitted to the hospital, due to being paralyzed from the neck down because of an autoimmune condition. This showcase shows a bunch of artwork that Jason made around the time, reflecting back on his priorities and how he was navigating this unique and challenging time in his life.

This exhibition is colorful and full of joyous stories, along with looks into what disability is like for children, especially in this extreme case where Jason was unable to really leave his hospital bed. Seeing this bright and vibrant look at disability and hospitalization would work as a great way to have some serious conversations with children, as everything is very visually pleasing. In the middle of the room, there is a large depiction of Jason, in a hospital bed. His feet are massive, to represent how swollen and painful they were. His body is covered in lights, that you can trigger with a button on the bedframe, which should the pain his nerves were randomly sending out while he was in bed. He’s watching TV, as that was really the only thing for him to do. There are cuts showing the insides of his body, to give more of a look into what is going on. And, that giant figure is almost cartoon like, in a bunch of doodles being drawn all over them.

Walking around the room, you can see little army men, like the toy ones that boys tend to have, carrying viruses. These symbolized how the illness was explained to Jason – an army of white blood cells that were attacking him instead of helping him. Another big sculpture shows off the shoes that he had to wear, to help strengthen his ankles, but Jason didn’t enjoy them and felt that they were painful and didn’t do any good in helping him walk. These are the sort of main areas of the exhibition, with a timeline to follow around the outside.

The timeline at Jason and the Adventure of 254 showcase not only the experiences that Jason and his family was having in the hospital, but also has little notes about real life events – exciting ones mostly – that everyone else was enjoying. Pac-Man being released is coupled by his first visit to the hospital. The boom of Rubix Cube competitions sides with doctors getting to the bottom of his illness. Sebastian Coe’s win at the 1,500 meter men’s race during the Moscow Olympics, being shown on the TV he was watching, was at the exact time (2:54 pm) that he was diagnosed and his parents were told he wouldn’t likely live past 16 years of age. This was a strange coincidence as the runner’s number was 254 as well. These different moments clearly stuck with Jason, as he processed what was happening to him and when.

There are also a bunch of other individual moments of Jason’s life in Jason and the Adventure of 254, shown through penny arcade inspired machines. Each of these looks into memories have a sort of multi-dimension layered drawing, that comes to life when you press a button on the front, bringing forth a lot of light. These different memories range from funny thoughts from his vivid imagination about a his mother being a mermaid because she wanted to swim in the sea to funny stories he heard from family members visiting him in hospital. Others showcase moments he thought were interesting or important, or again – just funny. One story tells about his brother-in-law always eating fruit from his table at the hospital without asking – and then eating an apple that he gotten dunked in pee by mistake. These little memories, from someone who has been bed bound for the majority of their childhood is quite interesting to see and experience.

Through the eyes of Jason, the current exhibition is so full of life and full of color, especially for something that would often be looked at as white and sterile. There is something so fun about seeing his story and understanding his childhood perspective. We had a chance to look at his sketch books, which also are full of such well drawn works of art. If you are in the area, it’s worth popping in to see this exhibition alone, and while you are there, you can dip into plenty of others along with some guided tours if you’d like.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!