Talking Violets and Schizophrenia

Yayoi Kusama

“I was in a separate world, and I was drawing in order to document the sights I saw there”-Yayoi Kusama-

Why do so many artist suffer from a mental Illness?This film will explore the creative mind and its association to mental illness in a specific context of comparing artist who suffer from mental illness and those who are functioning at a normal neurotic state.

Psychologist Daniel Nettle and Helen Clegg compared answers from artist, schizophrenics and the general population and found that artist and schizophrenics are more likely to share key behavioral traits.

Psychological anguish and the creative mindAn emotionally healthy personality would be determined by the ego functioning of an individual. It is determined that a healthy ego is one in which reality testing functions in a developmentally appropriate manner and would not consist of extreme psychological regression. Unhealthy reality testing presents in individuals who experience visual or auditory hallucinations, faulty thinking, paranoia, low self -worth and anxiety. Some of the diagnostic coding would include schizophrenia, schizoaffective, obsessive

compulsive disorder, paranoia, bipolar, anxiety, and depression. Many times a client who suffers with these symptoms or diagnosis also suffers from suicidal ideation. In addition the creative aspects of their thoughts translated into their art either provides healing, solace or the opposite, which includes severe pain and obsessions from their creations.“I fluctuate between feelings of reality and unreality”-Yayoi Kusama-

The documentary film titled ‘Talking Violets,’ will focus on the similarities in the expressive process comparing emotionally stable artists and ones that shares the suffering and torture of their mental illness through their art. Many aspects and examples will be given through interviews, visual forms and journals of both mentally ill artists and emotionally stable artists. Their process of creating will be formatted on film, showing process and product.

The concept and characteristics of a creative individual overlaps and intertwines with those characteristics of an individual with mental illness. These characteristics include a strong commitment to a personal aesthetic and/or obsession? and the concept of mental mobility; which refers to finding new perspectives and/or thinking in opposites? Another would be a willingness to take risks and/or impulsivity?

The work of Yayoi Kusama will be examined in the film with photos of her recent show, an interview with the gallery organizer and director offering insight into the viewer’s reactions and the child-like playfulness that was encouraged and invited into a world of what psychotherapist term as “Magical Thinking”.

The film will compare terminology and concepts of healing that also link the creative mind and mental illness treatment. Yayoi Kusama utilized what she termed her “Psychosomatic Art”; this self-therapy offered her the ability to manage her fears by turning the horror into something familiar. Visual examples of this will be shared and compared to what psychotherapist call “Exposure therapy”. Kusama defines “Depersonalization” which is a mental health term for the experience of losing one’s personality and feeling as if the soul has left the body.“A second can seem like hours”-Kusama-

Yayoi Kusama is a visual artist who is diagnosed with Schizophrenia. This artist is living in a psychiatric hospital is Tokyo. She has recently shown her work at The David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea, NY. Upon viewing her work the interactive format of placing adhesive dots onto walls, toaster, microwave, couches and other various objects in a fabricated house with pure white interior offered the viewer a visual rainbow into the world of schizophrenia.

As an undergrad art student at The University of Wisconsin I suffered with anxiety after the death of my mother. Art was my healer, as it expressed the deep pain of my grief. I then received a Masters of Social Word degree at NYU. I have experience in creating programs that link healing and art. I strive as a mental health worker to explore with my clients a connection to their passions, so creating becomes a healing tool for them. I have a pool of family members and friends who are artist, which I can obtain interviews, and pictorials of their work as well as clients with schizophrenia and other mental health diagnosis that I can interview.

This film will be distributed to mental health workers, agencies providing a healing tool for artist who suffer from mental illness as well as artist who function in a normal emotional state. The healing would occur due to increasing self-awareness and feeling mutuality, in a world that stigmatizes mental illness. The general public would find the film of interest due to the visual aspects while simultaneously obtaining a broader knowledge of mental illness, which is extremely misunderstood and once again, stigmatized.

VIOLET OBSESSIONS

The violets on the tablecloth break freeand crawl over my body

one by one they stickSumire flowers, violets

Have come to steal my love-Yayoi Kusama-