Sydney No

The erosion of a human body during the process of decomposition and the spreading of millions of maggots aren’t just examples of physical consumption, but illustrate how depression is all-consuming. In my series, I started by exploring how my struggle with depression tended to have a parasitic nature to it. Every moment of every day would be consumed by the feelings of dread and unwillingness that came with the illness. I display my struggle with depression through physical forms of consumption such as weeds and parasites, in order to mimic the nature of the illness.

Inspired by Takashi Murakami, I wanted to display gory and foul concepts while keeping a bright and inviting tone. Bright colors have always drawn me in, I wanted to use my interest in those colors to highlight dark points in my head. This helps to further display how the experience is unique to me. I use these vibrant hues to create a blinding, sickly feeling that comes with exposure to bright lights, which connects to the symptoms I’ve experienced. In works such as Decompose (Brain Noodles) , I used neon yellows and deep purple to highlight the grotesque feeling of your brain melting.  Through color and texture, I wanted to engage the audience to feel as if they were being taken over by the numbingly ill feeling that I have experienced.