Interiors of the Mind

2019

Interiors of the Mind takes a look at connecting the tension of tight interior environments to feelings of being trapped by difficulties with mental health. Using tightly cropped corners juxtaposed against windows Interiors of the Mind wants the viewer to feel seen by the tension in the frame.

Artist Statement

Interiors of the Mind explores the theme of mental health by creating tension through a series of self portraits and interior frames of  intimate environments to explain the complicated nature of the mind.

The first set of photos are intended to be generalizable. Mental health varies from person to person and can take the form of different monsters for many of us. For some mental health might mean chronic, for others passing. It can feel silencing, suffocating. A barrier from the world and experiences that lie within it. The first set of photos are tight frames of windows and corners in bedrooms, houses, and bathrooms; safe and personal environments. Here I intended to create tension in the frame that the viewer can identify with. 

For me, mental health means  anxiety. My anxiety can be a subtle nag; something living at constant low levels, a not so gentle reminder- on a good day. On a bad day I am incapacitated, left to feel cut off and isolated from everything around me. I often feel betrayed  by my own mind, and that my anxiety is a one player game I have been sentenced to play until I die. Here these portraits depict my isolating relationship with anxiety by placing myself into a wider frame of its partner photo.