Mahon, F. (2017). Five Contemporary Artists Exploring Mental Illness. Available at: https://www.hungertv.com/feature/five-contemporary-artists-exploring-mental-health/ 20 Oct 2017. [Accessed 26 May 2021]
"What is often left out of the conversation is art’s capacity to transform, heal and strengthen." She arguesIt’s this capacity for healing that is the topic of a new exhibition at London’s Zebra One Galleryentitled ‘With Art in Mind’. Exploring how artists share their own experiences of mental health through their work, the exhibition features pieces from iconic artists including Francis Bacon, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol alongside contemporary artists Kim Noble, Charlie and Eddie Proudfoot and George Harding.This is a preview of that exhibition
My Hands Are Tied
Kim Noble
"Having spent many years in and out of hospital, Kim Noble was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder in 1995, Kim Noble has 20 differing personalities, 14 of whom are artists. These 14 artists each have their own distinctive artistic styles ranging from abstracts to collages, making Kim one of the most prolific creative around today."
The selected artwork depicts red shadows of human forms. One chained down, another floating. Perhaps daydreaming and wishing, projecting their mind to be anywhere else from their mind prison confinements. "Free me, please help" in a childlike and naive handwritten note. A plea for help backwards, unheard. Lowercase suggests a quiet whisper. The textures in the illustration remind me of flowing water running downwards and suggest a cool atmosphere against the hot and aggravated body. The figure is bright red in contrast representing that they don't belong in their surroundings perhaps. Absent lines suggest the absence of structure in one's circumstances or life with bold shapes at the forefront of the composition. Primary colours give connotations of core needs and wants. The space has depth and distance, it is lonely.
Proudfoot 2
Charlie and Eddie Proudfoot
"Elusive and secretive, little is known about the Proudfoot Brothers except that they reside in NYC’s Lower East Side, and spent time in foster care, prison and psychiatric care throughout their lives. Creating mixed media works using old magazines and newspapers – the Proudfoot’s art centres on portraiture that obscures the face, making their subjects as elusive as themselves."
Rapid, harsh mark-making mixing primary and secondary colour palettes; warm and cool tones in a discordance with no particular preference. Non-representational figure with a head-shape with ears, neck and shoulders. Horizontal marks give the illusion of a nose and eyes but nothing else gives away race, gender or identity. The portrait is of someone in distress from the way the visual language indicates drips of paint for teardrops against the brutal, visceral and vulnerable lines. Painterly elements have been made in swiftness, speed and with a violent liveliness. The way the portrait is framed in relation to space and composition forces the viewer to look into the unknown. Look at a stranger. We look at people all the time but never understand what is behind the face. What is carried each day. Knowing the context that not much is known about the artists gives it an even more secretive layer.
Half Man, Half Basquiat
Darren MacPherson
"Figurative painter Darren MacPherson draws inspiration from his previous life as a social worker in his art. His colourful pieces explore the human condition through a complex process of layering using acrylics, spray paint, pastel and crayon.in acrylics, spray paint, oil pastel and crayon"
Compositionally Basquiat's figure take's up most of the space but not in an imposing or stifling way. Texture in the background suggests the graffiti and street art that he was known for early in his career, and the visual language on the portrait narrates the primitive, abstract figuration and neo-expressionism he was most famous for. The painting mixes primary and secondary, warm and complementary colours in a harmonious balance with flat and strong values. Overall there is visual and figurative balance, only through the rough, violent, and lively gestures is there any suggestion of anything otherwise.
I feel very uninspired by this piece and personally it doesn't interest me. Why not display a Basquait original or reproduced print? I feel it rather reductive to mimic another's legacy and visual language even if it is to tell his story. Is it really telling his story? This is only an echo. McPherson, as an artist, has the chance to share his soul and his own personal journey with mental illness.
Puzzled 2. Mix Media on Layered Perspex. 37.5x54.5cm
George Harding
"George’s self-portraits challenge perceptions about mental health. Drawing from his own journey with mental illness, and those of friends and family, he finds inspiration from impressionist painters – using techniques of blurring and fragmenting to portray emotion and disassociation from reality. Through his work he tries to create joy around our selves, and show that there are many different ways of living and being."
This abstracted perspex is in the same avenue as the work I create, in an expressionist and intuitive direction. Deliberate neon strokes shout against a cool grey background, like the wild thoughts in an English sky. Jigsaw pieces scatter, almost falling like trying to fit into society, family and other environments. Making the pieces fit but struggling to do so. As I zoom in there is actually a female figure there, I didn't notice it before because of my low level of vision! That surprised me. A pretty doll-like vintage woman stares up at the ceiling while pouting, with the neon strokes and jigsaw pieces layered on top. Collage and figuration juxtaposed and conflicting. Many things happening at once just like mental illness. Displaying the external of the portrait in the background but the internal of the mind at the foreground. The lighting is rather dark and muddy, values are contrasting. The gestures of paint suggest they were made deliberately with speed in an uncontrolled freedom. The space of the composition is full and overbearing, there is a lot to focus on and process like living with mental health or trauma. There isn't much unity or balance.
I only selected four of the five artists from the exhibition to focus artist research on.
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