Embodiment
“History is not the past; it is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.”
James Baldwin
Our bodies are a receptacle of our lived experiences, we constantly show the remnants of our past in it. Recent research shows that trauma alters our DNA expression and that we have the ability to pass those new expressions to new generations. The body becomes a battlefield for people suffering from a trauma or a mental illness, the place where we reconcile it all. It is also in the body that we can reprogram healing to change our story for us and for others.
For any of us that have experienced the transformational power of healing, we can also attest to the discomfort of this process. The physical and excruciating pain you feel when you are navigating through the hard parts of your story is also the very thing that will heal you. This body healing pain retrains our body to respond differently. In this process we reorganize our brains, tap into its resilience, and start to feel whole again. In reclaiming our relationship to our body and exploring our healing through it, we are slowly rewiring and healing every nerve that passes through us.
Embodiment is the first lens-based exhibition of the Hear/d Residency and what connects the work of all artists is their body agency. The works in this exhibition give us an intimate glimpse of that embodied resilience and that determination to break stigmas and labels. It shows the inner work required to reframe our stories and the powerful gift of presenting ourselves fully, without mediation to the world. Embodiment is an invitation to the viewer to see others in a different light, but most importantly, to see ourselves fully and question our own embodiment of healing.
We acknowledge our exhibition partners Exposure Photography Festival and CARFAC Alberta for their support.
Rocio Graham, Exhibition Curator
Hear/d Residency Coordinator
“See me, feel me, touch me, heal me”… Artful Embodiments of Mental Flux
The opening stanza, and foregrounding title for this essay, “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me” is based on the epic rock opera Tommy, performed by The Who. A series of lyrically uplifting, yet also dark songs imparts the story of a traumatic childhood beset by being deaf, dumb and blind.
For anyone struggling to feel accepted in the world, whether literally from blindness or deafness through to depression, social anxiety, or other cultural blockers, being seen and heard are the most important senses.
Tackling the aforementioned challenges requires a compelling foil, which the Hear/d residency confronts head on. This sterling initiative –comprising studio practice, peer support, mentorship, visiting artists and an exhibition— affords emerging artists the opportunity to draw on their lived experience to make new art.
In the latest Hear/d exhibition Embodiment, curated by Rocio Graham, we find seven artists variously tilling the fertile yet plagued grounds of self-consciousness, anxiety, loss, ADHD, racism, gender identity, depression and much more… Frank dialogue may not always result in mutual understanding, but in these artful embodiments of mental flux, there is definitely mutual respect.
With Portia Scabar’s delicate, hand-made vinoks—traditional Ukrainian flower headwear—she creates colourful cut-paper tiaras, modelling them herself in formally posed photographs. Vinoks have a cultural role as floral crowns for unwed women, but for Portia’s late sister who died unmarried, the anxiety associated with such loss is worn with head high.
The theme of floriography is continued in Camryn Carnell’s photo-grid, rich with symbolic depictions questioning personal appearance and self-perception midst a faerie-like mise-en-scene. The artist offers something for all, noting “I am continually unlearning harmful and limiting narratives.”
Exploration of agency through the self is a recurring theme in Embodiments, a clear indication that the Hear/d goal of safely exploring mental health is alive and well. Indeed, activating personal agency –a key tenet for community wellness— is front and centre in Lily Pavle’s self-portraits. Depicting cathartic struggles with how one is seen by others, her longing stares and shorn hair actively engage and confront viewers.
Notions of confrontation with the self and others are common for all, although few may care to admit it, let alone share as much publicly. Laura Olive’s video Expectations embraces such traits, yielding a sensitive commentary on her somewhat tumultuous daily routine and personal space. Remedies then flow, both for executive and emotional functioning, facing down labels such as gay, sexualized, ADHD, or simply a student.
For Janira Moncayo, video and monologue are also media of choice, with Identity Erasure offering glimpses into the life of an immigrant from Ecuador. Internal embodiments of racism, self-erasure and coming-from-away are trials for many, for which an honest look at BIPOC life (Black, Indigenous, Person of Colour) is notable in the exhibition.
Escape from reality or ourselves can be both a journey to light and life, or the dark side, something that Haley Craw addresses in her performative photographs Mistaken Outcast. Opting for light and life, but set in a graveyard, she offers a mythical, psychological landscape as a place of reverie and reflection: a calm yet uncanny offering for those who care to daydream.
Dreaming as a concept offers respite and rest, but only if the night terrors, or worse, waking nightmares, are kept at bay. Levin Ifko sings their way to a new dream, mining the universal construct of singing in the bath or shower, offering perhaps the strongest conceptual twist of Embodiment. Through video, in the guise of a karaoke performer, with streaming shower muffling Debbie Harry’s lyrics, the tele-prompt shares not Heart of Glass, but Levin’s alternate self-narrative of artful mental health laid heartfully bare. You can’t help but see yourself.
Collectively, Embodiment is notable in presenting self-portraits across the board, replete with candid vulnerability. Many should take strength from these honest depictions, particularly males and those who watch over them. Men have historically been slow to apply to Hear/d programming, are less likely to access mental health services, and are at much greater risk of suicide.
In baring their souls, all the artists in this exhibition have overcome considerable demons, for which Hear/d and the AUArts Students’ Association also deserve plaudits. Operating for only six years, Hear/d has audiences listening, seeing, and feeling anew.
Moreover Exposure, now in its seventeenth year, is all about focusing the lens on new topics, for which Embodiment appears to break new ground. Although disability featured in last year’s festival programming, Rocio Graham’s enquiry to organizers apparently indicates this is the first time there has been an exhibition devoted to mental health.
Most of all, look for yourself in these artworks: there is a positive recalibration of mental health for our broader world, and a reminder that we are not alone.
Dick Averns
CARFAC Alberta Engagement Coordinator
Hear/d Residency Program and the AUArts Students’ Association gratefully acknowledge the advocacy and support of CARFAC Alberta (Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens). Dick Averns is also Curatorial Coordinator for the University of Calgary Founders’ Gallery at The Military Museums, and Artistic Director for SITEcPROJECTS, the creative arm of OBAD (Organization for Bipolar Affective Disorders).