Artists and Mental Illness

Art’s capacity to transform and heal explored in raw and unapologetic show.

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For centuries, the correlation between creativity and mental illness has been romanticized, mythologized and stigmatized. What’s often ignored is art’s capacity to transform, heal and offer insight into things like anxiety, depression, addiction, self-harm, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.

Perspectives From Within, on view at Contemporary Calgary until Jan. 30, provides a diverse and fascinating window into the subject. Featuring more than 30 works by six Alberta artists who consider the lived experience of mental health challenges, it is curated by Calgary artist Dick Averns and produced by SITE c PROJECTS, the creative arm of the Organization for Bipolar Affective Disorders.

The show, which encompasses painting, textiles, sculpture, photography and digital art, explores how the “mad artist” trope is not about losing control of one’s mind but harnessing art for creative and therapeutic purposes. The exhibiting artists use art to understand and cope with their conditions while offering aesthetic glimpses into their psyches. The works are poignant and, at times, distressing.

The gallery is transformed into a somewhat chaotic labyrinth that creates both intrigue and disorientation. Works are hung from the ceiling or on movable walls made from drywall and plywood, set on the floor and placed on makeshift plinths. Viewers are exposed to surprising juxtapositions of imagery, colour and materials that evoke subconscious states, distorted realities and various states of being.

Large patchwork quilts and intimate cross-stitch pieces by Edmonton artist Richard Boulet are displayed throughout the space. Boulet expresses emotions that range from rage to hope, manifesting empowering tools for self-care and personal reflection. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1995, his daily stitching practice helps keep his anxiety at bay as was famously expressed in a dictum by French American artist Louise Bourgeois: “Art is a guaranty of sanity.”

The benefits of handicraft are further explored in collaborative works Boulet makes with self-trained Edmonton artist Marilyn Olson. The pair combines crocheted lace, doll clothing, textual embroidery, vibrant fabrics, needle-felted forms and other objects to create fantastical tapestries. Complex and playfully frenetic, they are meticulously contained within precise crocheted borders.

Edmonton artist Riisa Gundesen’s self-portraits stand in sharp contrast to these lavish textiles. Using the abject to explore the female body, she confronts viewers with multiple personas that seem to bathe obsessively, gorge themselves or over-groom. While viewers may be seduced by her robust brushstrokes, fastidious detail and vibrant colours, any pleasure is derisively disrupted by monstrous or contorted faces, vulgar poses and uncomfortable spaces. These works point to a daily life filled with anxiety, depression and intrusive thoughts.

Discomfort and indignity are explored in a series of black-and-white photographs of split and damaged trees by Wes Bell. Born in Medicine Hat, Bell pursued fashion photography in Milan, London and New York before returning to his fine art roots after a personal crisis and a short stay in a psychiatric ward. The trees, used as supports for chains, steel cables and sections of fencing, become haunting metaphors for the human condition. Wounded, scarred and permanently disfigured, the trees embody pain, trauma and constriction while simultaneously evoking a sense of resiliency.

Works by Brad Necyk and Jane Grace bring viewers into the clinical realm, where ailments are studied and treated. Necyk, who grew up in St. Albert, spent much of his childhood in hospitals recovering from multiple surgeries. He was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The show includes an autobiographical film, Alberta #3, and digital works from his installation, Waiting Room, which explores how head and neck cancer affects patients’ lives. Fragments of torn faces appear and disappear, evoking tension and ruptured identities.

Pain and debasement are taken to an excruciating extreme in sculptures from Calgary-based artist Jane Grace’s ongoing series, Scenes from the Doll Hospital. Viewers are confronted by fictional experimental scenarios made with a mashup of dolls, domestic objects and medical equipment. Grace, inspired by her own psychiatric experiences, uses these visceral sculptures to interrogate how the “medical gaze” can pathologize women’s minds, bodies and emotional experiences.

While many artists cope with mental health issues, most don’t produce work that actively portrays their inner struggles. This raw and unapologetic exhibition is a testament to art’s transformative power, inviting viewers to explore the darker crevices of the human psyche. ■  

Perspectives from Within at Contemporary Calgary from Nov. 4, 2021, to Jan. 30, 2022. Curated by Dick Averns with artists Wes Bell, Richard Boulet, Jane Grace, Riisa Gundesen, Brad Necyk and Marilyn Olson.

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