On May 4th, 2018, I presented my thesis series which was the culmination of a year’s amount of research and studio time.
The goal of my work is to create a visual separation between patient and diagnosis. I did this with psychological conditions that have the uniting primary symptom of obsession. The conditions which I featured in the gallery were Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, Hoarding, and Sexual Fetishistic Disorder. The disorders were depicted on canvases mounted on the wall with oil paint and collage work. The patients took the form of long-exposure portrait photographs printed in black ink on translucency film and suspended from the ceiling directly in front of the corresponding paintings. The nude portraits are meant to depict indistinct individuals in their most vulnerable state similar to the effects of mental health conditions on the person’s mind.
Please click through the slideshow below to see the difference that perspective has on the images and similarly how perspective can change how people view conditions and those diagnosed with them.
Arya Marie's Art 