SAFEHOUSE
Inspired by principles from Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Art Therapy, using various dominant/non- dominant hand painting and writing combinations to attempt to access the subconscious mind and create this abstract autobiographical space. The idea of this entire exploration kept the structure of exhibiting the work in mind, therefore leading to a more installation style project.
I continued this exploration and looked for new ways to expand my painting practice, creating this abstract autobiographical "book". The idea was to continue with dominant/non-dominant hand painting to allow for information to surface from the subconscious mind, leading to the creation of this psychedelic painting on board. Seeing the two together, the idea of an expanded book came to me, with the pages floating out of the book cover, leading to this piece in the project.
The book cover represented the subconscious landscape to me, which led to the creation of Psychscape, a video representing the ever changing subconscious plane, the different shades that you can never quite grasp in a moment no matter how hard you try to.
This piece was inspired by Merike Estna's Blue Lagoon Solo Exhibition at Kumu Art Museum. My aim was to create an abstract expressionist piece. I used no paintbrushes and relied solely on my hands, seeking direct contact and a tangible sense of the canvas and painting space. In this way, I became fully absorbed in the process, finding it incredibly liberating to work on a larger scale - a space that afforded me the ability to breathe, to explore, and to express myself without constraint.
For the purpose of this abstracted painting, I was working in a setting where individuals could pass by and view my work as I did it, instead of in a private space. This enhanced the concept of a protective veil that I aimed to portray through my art. The painting served as an external reflection of my persona, in a setting where I would exhibit it. Being in a public setting enabled me to tap into the energy of the mask I sought to depict.
I wanted to expose a part of myself through the veil. To me, it was the idea of having a curtain that you could still sort of see in between, but that partially masked a more protected space. That's why I made the deliberate choice to shred the painting. By doing so, I enhanced the notion of revealing while also concealing. Removing a portion of the artwork further obscured the true nature of what was beneath the surface, adding an extra layer of protection to the vulnerable aspects of myself that I was revealing through my exhibit. I then put it together in an "L" shape, to wrap it around my desk space.
After cutting out and painting a few small samples from the leftover canvas from the Veil prototype, I found myself enamoured with the shape of the leftover canvas. Though the samples were more confined, they were imbued with vibrancy and rich hues that stirred something within me. The process of merging these smaller fragments with the larger canvas felt like a puzzle coming together, as if the subconscious pieces were aligning in perfect harmony.
These initial samples inspired the idea of creating puzzle pieces, all cut out of the same cloth, changed and then put back together. This is inspired the idea of the fragmented shadow self as per Jungian theory, the idea that these fragmented pieces come back together to create something new that didn’t exist there before.
The idea behind this final installation space was to emulate a safe corner inside the mind, a cocooned safehouse that holds pieces of the self within it. I decided to create an installation on the wall to complete the space, representing a stream of consciousness, comprised of non-dominant/dominant hand painting and writing.
