Shattered Mind
matte medium gel transfer on: chair, mirror, pill bottles and brick
There are a lot of people all around us in this world that struggle with depression sometimes leading to suicide. People in my life that are my inspiration to make this work are the ones closest to me including myself. My boyfriend has been struggling with severe depression and bipolar disorder for a long time and I lived with him for 2 years and saw that daily struggle he went through. He recently had to move back home to be with family because it has gotten so bad. Since this happened a little over 2 months ago, I’ve noticed my depression creeping back in and keeping my brain in this awful prison. I feel like I’m a burden and my depression is such a heavy and intense weight I have to carry around everyday. When I get stuck in my heavy depressive states I tent to cut people off. I isolate myself to help others from not feeling the burden of trying to help me.
Shattered mind is an instillation piece that includes parts of my daily life and struggle with depression. I transferred images to multiple different objects because of their relation to mental health. The process of transfers takes a while, you have to build up the gel before you can rip off the paper and you still need to be gentle because it is such a fragile process, and this reminded me how with depression with the build up of everything and you can hide it until a certain point and it just breaks through. I chose to transfer images to bricks because of the heavy weight and burden depression plays in our lives. I used a wooden chair because they are uncomfortable, I wanted it to feel isolated and no one would want to sit down. I also transferred images to pill bottles to represent how many pills we can take but still not feel better and how they can make us feel worse in some cases.
I view this as a chance for people to feel the uncomfortable and unhappy feeling I feel as many others do from day to day. Do you feel like you have too much to carry? Do you feel alone and this heavy burden of depression is getting to much to carry? I want you to know you are not alone and there are resources for you out there. Call or text 988
When is enough, enough?
matte medium gel image transfers
3'x3' medicine cabinet containing 60 pill bottles
