3 Artists Interpret Methods of Healing at MENTAL: Colours of Wellbeing
We speak to three local artists part of the ArtScience Museum's MENTAL: Colours of Wellbeing exhibition whose works provide a fresh perspective on what mental health looks like.
The ongoing conversation on mental health is one that has been gaining momentum as more people around the world learn about the importance of health beyond its physical aspects. At the heart of ArtScience Museum’s year-long project, Season of Wellbeing, is an exhibition that explores the diversity in mental health journeys. Mental: Colours of Wellbeing, a collaboration with Science Gallery Melbourne at the University of Melbourne, expands the way we look at dialogues of mental health through art, science and technology.
With its 24 large-scale exhibits in the gallery space, Mental: Colours of Wellbeing invites its visitors to freely walk through and develop their independent paths towards mental health. The exhibition allows visitors to focus on the kaleidoscopic spectrum of what well-being looks like and to chart their own explorations of mental health.
Mental: Colours of Wellbeing is broken down into four central themes — Connection, Exploration, Expression, and Reflection — that visitors of all ages can dive into. Each artist’s interpretation of mental well-being takes on a life of its own, illustrating the power of recognising the individuality of healing.
The installations hail from all over the globe, and include seven works from Southeast Asian artists. We talk to three of the local artists who exhibited works in Mental: Colours of Wellbeing, delving into the media that bring the conversation of mental health to the forefront of their deeply personal works.
DIVAAGAR
MODEL: KITCHEN, 2022
Commissioned by ArtScience Museum, Divaagar’s work Model: Kitchen is the opening installation that greets visitors to the exhibition. Model: Kitchen depicts a kitchen space — one that feels familiar to most of us — and explores the intimacies of care shown in a deceptively plain room. At the core of the installation is the question, “Have you eaten?” Hidden in three simple words is a world of oft-forgotten care. Through Model: Kitchen, Divaagar highlights acts of love and care that can be taken for granted in a communal space.
When asked about what inspired the creation of Model: Kitchen for Mental: Colours of Wellbeing, the artist explains, “In my experience growing up in my flat, a lot of things aren’t necessarily said but instead shown through gestures or semantics. How we treat or care for each other, it’s all often read between the lines.” Three- dimensional animations that replace the screens of appliances in the kitchen depict subtle acts of care that often bear underlying messages of love.
Model: Kitchen reveals how much meaning can be revealed once we take a closer look at the everyday interactions we engage in. This excerpt of daily life shows how familial love can be expressed in many different forms, even in ways we don’t typically pay attention to.
“Rather than focusing on idealism, we could instead look more closely at the things we say and do to and for each other, and how we feel about them,” Divaagar emphasises. He shares that this artwork is intended to encourage viewers to reflect upon conversations people have in the kitchen, just as he did. In the space of the kitchen and among the 3D animations, he invites visitors to openly find their own place in his work. His inclination toward the showroom medium for his art stems from his hope of bringing a sense of familiarity, making the space accessible to anyone and everyone.
As for the discussion of mental health in Singapore, Divaagar sees how the topic can be presented in a format that provides some respite. “Art offers a lot of open-endedness, which, like a good therapist, leads one to ask themselves questions or even check in with their feelings,” he remarks. Healing and well-being, when expressed through art, can unearth a variety of responses previously untapped.
ALECIA NEO
BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY, 2018
Centred around a group of primary caregivers, Alecia Neo’s work Between Earth and Sky is a mixed media exhibit, made up of a video and an installation composed of 14 kites, that uses creative expression as a means of release. When one becomes the primary caregiver of a loved one, it’s undoubtedly a major change.
Neo’s video features nine primary caregivers who look after family members with mental health conditions. Reframing the conversation to underline the weight that caregivers deal with on a daily basis, the video in Between Earth and Sky shows these caregivers outwardly turning the weight they feel in their bodies into expressive art.
Through a series of workshops with movement artists Sharda Harrison and Ajunta Anwari, the caregivers found an artistic method to express the weight they carry, from both themselves and the recipients of their care. Each caregiver choreographed their own pieces after the workshops, which they then performed at a site of personal significance.
In conversation about the performances that were woven into the video as part of Between Earth and Sky, Neo observes, “Each caregiver’s performance reflected critical moments in their journeys, as well as how they navigated profound uncertainties and doubt.”
She goes on to share how Between Earth and Sky helped her learn more about the difficulties that primary caregivers face, while underscoring the crucial and often overlooked role they play. “This project allowed me to contribute to the current dialogue on caregiver support and reaffirm the creative potential, competencies, and value inherent in care work, which is in great need of concrete and longer-term support,” she says.
“Participating in the movement workshops allowed some caregivers to come back into their bodies, something they felt disassociated from for some time,” Neo shares when asked about how she viewed movement as a healing medium. In the realm of mental well-being and healing through art, she asserts, “The arts can offer a different modality.”
This rings true in the other part of Between Earth and Sky, where 14 kites form a collective body as a symbol of vulnerability and freedom. Each shield-shaped kite represents liberation through a release of weight that the caregivers feel. Bearing close-up images of clothing of each caregiver and their respective loved one, the kites were originally flown by the caregivers, who were joined by members of the public in solidarity. For Mental: Colours of Wellbeing, the kites take up residence in the gallery space.
LEE YI XUAN
STATE OF MIND, 2021
An individualistic expression of her inner thoughts, State of Mind is artist Lee Yi Xuan’s depiction of the chaos within. Utilising common methods found in art therapy, Lee taps on scribbling and the “draw in a circle” framework as tools to externalise her thoughts. State of Mind is an artwork that exposes and puts Lee’s own emotions on display, and encourages others to look inward and express themselves in a similar fashion.
“I feel that healing takes place when you learn to accept pain and negative emotions,” Lee says. She elaborates on how State of Mind advocates for the expression and eventual acceptance of all the emotions that we experience. In using techniques commonly practised in art therapy, she uses her work to begin her own healing on her terms.
When asked to elucidate how these techniques helped her to begin her individual journey of healing, she continues: “When submerged in indescribable situations, the notion of drawing in a circle provides a visual containment to externalise those feelings and thoughts.” The repetitive scribbling, as seen in State of Mind, is a grounding method, “a technique that is used to bring one back to the present and reorientate to the reality here and now.” These techniques add to the personal significance of healing that Lee undertakes with State of Mind, which she invites others to partake in as well.
Regarding the progress of mental health advocacy in Singapore, Lee candidly explains, “Speaking out about these struggles is difficult enough in itself. Hence, opening up these discussions means that more people can come to see that they are not alone and that it is OK to ask for help.” State of Mind is Lee’s contribution to the conversation on mental well-being in Singapore, using art and art therapy as instruments to nudge others to use the same methods to heal when they feel comfortable enough to do so.
As much as the conversation in Singapore is growing to include more constructive voices, mental well-being is at times still a topic that people tiptoe around. But with more exhibitions like Mental: Colours of Wellbeing, it’s clear that many people like the artists Divaagar, Alecia Neo and Lee Yi Xuan are advocating for more meaningful conversations in the mental health space through creative methods like art. Here’s to making the dialogue surrounding mental health more accessible for all.
