Monthly Musings: Photography and Mental Health
This May marks the first installment of a new Blue Sky blog series, “Monthly Musings.” Every month, Exhibitions Manager Zemie Barr will bring together work from past and present Blue Sky exhibitions that share a common theme.
May is Mental Health Month, which started in the United States in 1949 in order to promote awareness of and destigmatize mental illness. Especially now, as the global COVID-19 crisis has drastically changed our everyday lives, an open dialogue about mental health and accessibility to treatment is needed more than ever (and with that in mind, I have added some mental health resources at the end of this blog post for those who may be interested).
Over the years, Blue Sky has shown work by quite a few artists who have used photography to communicate how mental illness has affected their lives. For this post, I’ve highlighted two bodies of work that Blue Sky has previously shown on our gallery walls, as well as a series by a current Drawers artist, whose work will be available to view as soon as it is safe for Blue Sky to open. I find these three series particularly powerful because each photographer has shared a deeply personal narrative with honesty, care, and depth.
Joshua Lutz, The Coming Insurrection, 2012
Within the first few months of starting at Blue Sky in 2013, I had the opportunity to facilitate Joshua Lutz’s exhibition of Hesitating Beauty. Based on his relationship with his mother, who battled depression and schizophrenia for most of her life, the series includes old family snapshots, the artist's portraits of his mother, and staged photographs. All together, these images form a poetic, non-linear narrative best described as “creative nonfiction.” Lutz writes that with this work, “I imagined a time when the past, present and future collided; a place where the weight of that memory is heavier than reality.” The project also exists as a book, which includes additional text by the artist, and allows for an even more intimate experience with these moving images.
Installation view of Side Effects May Include by Tamara Staples on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose in 2017
In October 2018, Blue Sky exhibited Tamara Staples’ Side Effects May Include, a photo-based installation about the relationship between mental health and polypharmacy (the simultaneous use of multiple drugs by a single patient). Staples began the project after her sister took her own life using pharmaceuticals prescribed for bipolar disorder. Staples photographed the remaining pills in her sister’s medicine cabinet and translated these images into wallpaper, a video, and fabric for a quilt, upholstery, dresses, and drapes that came together in an ambitious gallery installation. In addition to drawing attention to an issue that is highly deserving of more scrutiny, the artist’s ingenious use of photography added another important layer to the experience of the piece. In conjunction with the exhibition, Staples and Portland-based mental health advocates engaged in a panel discussion at Blue Sky to raise awareness about the ways that polypharmacy can affect mental health and brainstorm alternative models.
Aunna Moriarty, And in That Moment IV, 2019
Moving into 2020, our current Drawers exhibition includes a series of photographs by Aunna Moriarty entitled And in That Moment. In these staged, surreal self-portraits, Moriarty performs her waking interpretations of her dreams. As an artist living with OCD and bipolar disorder, Moriarty explains, “Dreams are my signifier that my mind never rests,” yet her photographic practice is one way to process the day’s lingering thoughts and emotions that materialize while she sleeps. the artist’s elaborately constructed sets draw us into her inner world as a way of shifting our perspective from passive observers to engaged, empathetic viewers.
As an artist who has also relied on photography as a tool for working through difficult times, I am thankful to Joshua Lutz, Tamara Staples, and Aunna Moriarty for sharing their stories. Thank you for reading and please take care.
Until next month,
Zemie
National and Local Mental Health Resources:
Clackamas County Crisis Line: 503-655-8585
Multnomah County Crisis Line: 503-988-4888
Washington County Crisis Line: 503-291-9111