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!