The Gallows (2017)
I remember the urge to create this piece as a form of release. At the time, I was on and off anti-psychotics and struggling to discern reality. The whiplash of mania, intense hallucinations, and erratic behavior would then cycle with periods of complete despondency. Maybe as a subconscious coping strategy, I imagined my mind as a landscape, or a specific, ghostly kind of purgatory, where symptoms are autonomous beings that interact with one another. For this performance, I assumed the role of a phosphene, and channeled through this character the panic I experience within psychotic states. The hanging masses, which were painted during prior symptomatic episodes, are manipulated by the protagonist character, but always return to form, insinuating that madness remains despite mediation.
