The Order of Glorious Motherhood 

Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country in the world, with less than two inhabitants per sq.km - Livestock outnumber people by roughly 20 to 1. 

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, there are currently (2024) around 3.2million inhabitants - still making it the emptiest country on the planet. 

People are so scarce that the Mongolian Government has been paying couples to procreate and honour women with medals for having large families. In stark contrast to neighbouring China’s former one-child policy, Mongolia is still trying to boost numbers with incentives that were introduced in the 1950s.

Motherhood is seen as the ‘patriotic duty’ of every Mongolian woman. Four children bring mothers the honour (+ medal) of ‘Second Order of Glorious Motherhood’, 6 kids the highest honour of ‘First Order of Glorious Motherhood’

Mongolia’s extreme & harsh climate conditions create barriers to its economic and population growth.  There is very little arable land, huge areas covered by Steppes, with long cold winters in the soaring mountains and burning summers in the deserts. The effects of climate change will no doubt exacerbate these extremes, making life particularly challenging for nomadic inhabitants. 

According to figures from the UN: ‘Mongolia has recorded an increase in temperature of 2.14℃ between 1940 and 2008 and this has resulted in an increase in grassland aridity, lowering the production of biomass, increased incidence of pasture insects and rodents, drying of many rivers, lakes and ponds and shifting precipitation patterns. In the coldest months of December to February, some areas drop to temperatures of -50ᵒC.’

CRAZY TALK: A visual exploration into the language of mental health

‘Crazy Talk’ looks at the language of mental health and explores how words such as ‘crazy’, ‘nuts’ and 'bananas' are casually used to describe mental health issues - the aim of the project is to highlight the taboos, stigmas and lazily used slang that we can be guilty of reaching for. 

A portrait sits next to a food/still life object depicting the words, connotations and stigmas the subjects have experienced - alongside deeply personal stories.

The 10 subjects in this project have a history of mental health problems and bravely share their stories. There’s Alex, for example, who suffers with anxiety and panic attacks who was called “nuts” by an ex-boyfriend. When Jade took a day off work with depression, her employer insisted she tell colleagues she had a stomach bug instead of a mental health problem, lest people got “the wrong idea” about her. This reinforced a feeling she often experiences, like she is “hiding a bad secret and always walking on eggshells”.

One in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives. According to the World Health Organization 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression and rates of self-harm in the UK are the highest in Europe.

Nine out of 10 people with mental health conditions say the stigma has a negative impact on their life.

Would it be crazy to think we could change these attitudes?