A HOUSE FOR AN ADHD PERSON

(adult or child)

 

 

We read on the web that 1 out of 10 children in the United States suffers of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and that many of them carry into adulthood this illness.

 

But is it really an “illness..?”

 

What if, indeed, “normality” itself is an illness, and maybe the most serious of all…?

 

We invite you to be “abnormal.”

 

We invite you to welcome, yes welcome, a feast of ADHD.

 

We welcome you to dream, just like the child in Jacques Prevert’s beautiful poem "Page d'Ecriture":

 

Two and two four

Four and four eight

Eight and eight makes sixteen…

Repeat! says the teacher

Two and two four

Four and four eight

Eight and eight makes sixteen.

But there is a lyrebird

Who flies through the sky

The child sees it

The child hears it

And the child calls to it

Save me

Play with me

Bird!

So the bird descends

And plays with the child

Two and two four…

Repeat! says the teacher

And the child plays

And the bird plays with him…

Four and four eight

Eight and eight makes sixteen

And what’s sixteen and sixteen?

It makes nothing, 16 and 16

Especially not thirty-two

In any case

And it leaves

And the child hides the bird

In his desk

And the children hear his song

And all the children

Hear the music

And 8 and 8 leave in their turn

And 4 and 4 and 2 and 2

And in their turn clear out

And one and one don’t make 1 or 2

And 1 by 1 leave equally

And the lyrebird plays

And the child sings

And the teacher cries:

When you are done acting like clowns!

But the other children

Listen to the music

And the walls of the class

Crumble gently

And the glass panes become sand again

And the ink becomes water again

And the desks become trees again

And the chalk becomes cliffs again

And the quill becomes the bird again.

 

Please design a house for this child.

 

Please design a house for an ADHD person (child or adult alike).

 

Better even , please design a house for the Adult-Child who refuses to be eaten up by the monotony of ‘normality,” who refuses to become “healthy,” if by “healthy” one means unable of imperfections, unable of dreaming, unable of not-conforming, unable of not being “deviant.”

 

Design The House of Deviancy.

 

Design The House of ADHD.

 

Design A House for Jacques Prevert.

 

Please send us ANY work, ANY size and ANY format that responds to the theme to house_of_adhd@icarch.us. We will publish all the works received on our website, www.icarch.us. There is no registration fee. The deadline for submitting your work is always. If you have any questions please contact us.

 

Thank you,

 

ICARCH Gallery

 

Please note that Yves Montand is the singer in the video, not the author of the poem.