Curatorial Rationale

I have been struggling with my own mental state throughout the years relatively alone. My artworks are all linked by incorporating an aspect of mental illness or an individual's mentality. My sister overall has had an impact on my art making since her health has not been in the best condition which has caused a feeling of helplessness. This has deepened my depression and has drastically affected my emotions and mentality on a daily basis.

In my body of work I have kept an overall style of not incorporating faces or containing distorted faces. Many emotions are displayed facially and through the body and color. The use of colors around the faces as seen in Build up and Rest express further emotions but also leave room for ambiguity. Some of my artworks were created while I was in an emotionally dark place, such as Blank, Breathe and It’s Okay I’m Vegetarian. When creating these pieces I reflected on the sensation I experienced during these dark places, specifically It’s Okay I’m Vegetarian. These different factors allow the audience to incorporate their own emotions when viewing my exhibition.

While creating these artworks I stuck to just simply doing everything by hand on a canvas or giant drawing paper like Blank and Build up. I also explored digital painting, which I got into due to my lack of energy to get out of bed. As a result of this introspection, my artworks became linked to one another through explorations of mental illness in a broad sense. In my digital artworks - Cycle, Deep, and It’s Okay I’m Vegetarian - I created a sense of space in all of the artworks to achieve a lonely atmosphere since throughout my journey with mental illness, I have relatively been dealing with it alone. I also explored digital photography. Beauty Within is a series of photographs of the winter weather, in which many individuals get seasonal depression during this time, but I was set out to find the beauty in this weather. Breathe is a photograph of myself with charcoal all over and gasping for air. This photograph represents the overwhelming feeling experienced with depression. The artworks that I have chosen all connect back to a timeline journey of my mental illnesses and the severity throughout time. Two main artists that have influenced my art making are Joseph Lee and Andi Waskito. Both of these artists have unique art styles which influenced the route I took in creating my artworks.

When viewers enter my exhibition, I want them to discover a growing severity of mental illness as they move from one work to the next. Towards the left I place artworks like Beauty within which is the beginning of this mental illness journey in which represents a time period where seasonal depression peaks and during this time critiques about oneself also increase. The center art piece is Silence, which represents this sense of denial regarding mental illnesses. Silence showcases the point in which I tried to cover up and make excuses for the emotions I was feeling. Towards the right, I place artworks like It’s Okay I’m Vegetarian which depict how severe it can get to the point of eating disorders due to my body dysmorphia. It’s Okay I’m Vegetarian will represent this shift from something mental to becoming something physical. Overall the placement of my artworks depict the journey from what seems to be innocent critiques of oneself and denial can and have led to something you can not go back from, relating to myself. It is difficult to face the truth of what you have done, and through this process of artwork making I have realized how I got to the point I have.

None of the artworks in this gallery are for sale.