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!