Andrea Tyrimos - Bipolar Picasso Installation

[Interviewer] Hi Andrea, thank you for
inviting us into your studio

and opening your
world of art to us.

if you could please tell
us what you're up to

Of course! I just had an exhibition
called "Bipolar Picasso"

basically it's an art installation
which includes portraits

alongside audio recordings

and all of my "sitters" have
suffered at some point

or are still suffering, with
different mental health

illnesses or vulnerabilities,

for this project I painted
or done recordings with

vast celebrities alongside
members of the public

and that was mainly because
of my frustration with

the media and it really
tends to cover mental

health issues when
it concerns a celebrity

so I wanted to turn
that on its head

and kind of almost use
the celebrity status

in saying all these members
of the public

are just as important

and if you are willing
to hear this person's story

-and accept that,
you should also be wiling to hear

you know, your neighbour's
or this other person that

that works in the supermarket down

the road
or what have you..

They're all painted with oil paint

and, as you can see..

I left the hair and the clothing
very minimal

and this was so that the
visitor could connect

quite strongly with each portrait

and it's not often that
you are able to

hear somebody's uninterrupted
story

while looking directly into their eyes

and the visitor's experience in particular
was really important to me

I wanted you to walk into the gallery

and almost feel temporarily
immersed in this

all-sensory exploration of
the mind

and even for a few seconds,
feel as though you

can understand what
this person is going through.

[interviewer] Can you
just briefly tell us

how are you allowing the
viewer to listen to the art?

Yeah, of course. Each painting, when
it was in the gallery,

it basically was accompanied
by a set of headphones

again, something quite intimate
rather than it playing aloud

for everybody to hear
so the idea being just you to pop the

headphones on and then,
you'd catch them at any moment

speaking,
everybody was really open with me

almost surprisingly so, I think maybe

because I'm not
a member of the press

or a charity maybe that they've
been used to talking

in a certain way
and they

are really open about their
struggles, their vulnerabilities,

fear of being judged
but also, more importantly,

how did they go through it
and like I said,

I think that
moment which allows you to

stare at the painting,

-as I was discussing
with you guys before,

here, on average we
look at paintings for

kind of seven seconds
and I did see that people would pop on

their headphones for just a few seconds
and move on to the next one

but I had a lot of people
listening to the entirety of the show

really engaging..
and saying that they think it needs

to be seen by a wider audience
so that's now what I'm hoping to do

I'm hoping to tour this exhibition
to different cities

to different countries

and hopefully expand it
and go from there.

[Interviewer] Mmm, so, maybe we can
have a sample listen?

-of course

So, I'll do a sample first
of Mark (pointing)

Mark is a journalist for the
Guardian and also an author

[prepares audio equipment]

and he speaks about
his experiences

with what he describes as

his "nervous breakdown"

and the first moment when he had those

symptoms and those feelings..

[audio plays]
"These things have been"

"building up to me"

"..for a number of weeks"

"before hand"

"in just a few weeks"

"I really haven't feel well myself"

"my vision was stranged"

"my concentration wasn't there.."

"things were swimming"

"and, I had this numbing knot,
something in my stomach"

"I had this desire, it should
come down "

"to fortune" [inaudible] "..last"

"begin to" [inaudible] "..awful bloating"
[inaudible]

"for the most of the time [inaudible]"

"I just had this awful [..]
sense of panic.."

"butterflies of not being able"

"to look people in their face"

"not being able to starting conversations"

"and not being able to finish them"

"and actually"

"for not understanding with my love"

"not holding a hand.."

[Andrea stops the tape]

Ok, so what's great about Mark is

as you can hear

he so beautifully articulates

how he was feeling and
I think many people

do struggle to kind of
explain and express

how they are feeling

and that's how lots of
people can

relate to his story
in particular

[Interviewer] Ok,wonderful!
and with..

This is Tory,

Tory Anne Martin,

She's actually a friend of mine

She's a pretty talented
singer and producer

and Tory suffers with anxiety

and speaks about
a lot of different things

but also with a particular
focus on social media

so I'll play you a snippet
from hers as well..

[prepares the audio for playback -
keyboard clicks]

"Couldn't get started "

"that I accepted"

"so every time you want it was"

"and part of.. it was like"

"six years ago I was with a friend"

"at a talk show"

"and I just need to get out"

"because I was feeling
like just go out [..] and run"

[inaudible] "..because I
considered it done.."

"at home, everyone
in there was judging me.. "

"I don't even know if somebody
was looking at me"

"..but that was how I felt."

"I need to get out"

"I'm not just tolerate.."
[inaudible]

"and obviously accept.."

"in the place I just
wanted to be"

"it's the" [inaudible] "The
feeling is to.."

[Andrea stops the tape]

So what's really
interesting about

Tory's is that -I think,
hers in particular

us can really relate to it

as we'll have those
feelings of anxiety

even if it is just a little
seed in our brain

and again, as we were

speaking about social media

is such a great platform to speak about

mental health awareness

and issues surrounding

disability awareness but

at the same time it can also be quite

detrimental to one's self-images

we are constantly comparing

and we have these ups
and these crop-ups

and stuff..
so we have these two

very different stories and..

and all these relations..

[interviewer] Wonderful,
Thank you for sharing!

Thank you so much!

[interviewer] Wonderful to
have you with us!

Thank you!