Andrea Tyrimos - Bipolar Picasso Installation

ABILITY Magazine meets Andrea Tyrimos in her London studio where she's using art to expose the still taboo topic of mental health.

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,

and 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 neighbor's
or this other person that

that works in the
supermarket down

the road
-or what have you...

and, they are 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 experience
in particular

was really
important to me

I wanted it to be you
are talking to the gallery

and almost feel temporarily
immersed in this sort of

all-sensory exploration of
the mind

and even for a few seconds,
feel -is that 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, cool! 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 it

so the idea being just
you to put the

headphones on
and then,

you catch them
at any moment

speaking, "everybody
is 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
vulnerabilites,

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 how I loved to see
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 take this exhibition
to different cities

to different countries

and hopefully expand it
and go from there.

[Interviewer] So, maybe we can
have a sample to 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!