The recent spate of negative news has cast a cloud over everyone's mind. Who would have thought that the sunny "Wang Lichuan", together with the words "sudden death" and "mourning", would be on the top of the news overnight; The well-known makeup blogger Yu Ya's domestic violence video makes people can't bear to look at it; One month after Shirley's life was taken away by emotional illness, her good friend Guehora also chose to end her life and so on. With the emergence of these news, many marginalized phenomena have finally begun to be taken seriously by people. The discussion on emotional diseases is no longer ignored and stigmatized, and has become a topic that people can relate to. Now, the Natural Light Zhengzhou Art Collection Organization will bring you to talk about how art can arouse the attention of marginalized groups?

In fact, just as our body will get sick, so will our emotions. This is not an option that you can choose to think or not to think, but an uncontrollable physiological reaction like headache, vomiting and diarrhea.

　　 Zhengzhou art collection organization, how can art arouse the attention of marginalized groups?

Artists have always been at high risk of mental illness. Among the 10 professions with the highest incidence of depression in the United States, artists ranked sixth. Students who study art must also experience that because of professional reasons, we need more sensitive imagination and empathy than ordinary people, and are more likely to be affected by negative emotions. When we are distressed by the souls of those artists struggling with mental illness, we are more surprised by the struggle between them and the disease, as well as the world they try to let us see in the eyes of all patients with emotional diseases.

Gabriel Isak, eyes that can see depression

Works of Gabriel Isak

Gabriel Isak, a Swedish surrealist photographer, is a patient with depression. His works all revolve around a theme, which is to visualize the mental world of patients with depression.

Works of Gabriel Isak

Large pieces of blue, black tone, and vague local portraits, Gabriel's works often make people feel powerless and suffocated in the deep sea. We can imagine that if this is the world in our eyes, Gu Siye is a boundless abyss with no light and no hope. What strength can we use to break free and achieve the so-called "take things easy"?

People often advise depressed people to just "go out more", "don't think so much", "go to bed earlier", "live in the sunshine", and Gabriel Isak gives the best answer for all depressed patients.

"It's not that I don't do it. I really can't"

365 "manic depression" by Miss Douglas

If depression is dragged into the abyss, manic depressive disorder (bipolar disorder) is like riding a roller coaster, swinging between the two extremes of manic and depression.

Miss Douglas, a 42 year old artist, has struggled with bipolar disorder every day since she came of age. In 2013, she chose to record her illness by painting every day. At the same time, Douglas decided to give up medication for the sake of emotional truth and accuracy.

"Day 177" by Miss Douglas

Douglas hid his illness for 17 years to look like a normal person. However, such disguise aggravated her illness day after day. Douglas shut herself in and refused to communicate with others. In the worst case, she tried to commit suicide, but fortunately, she was rescued.

"Day 359" by Miss Douglas (Christmas 2013)

All emotional patients try to hide and disguise their illness because of the stigma of mental illness. Because people cannot see with healthy eyes, nor can they imagine the "frustration, loneliness and desolation" of the world in the eyes of mental patients. The sympathy, enlightenment, even accusation and disgust shown by the healthy people who cannot empathize from a high angle is undoubtedly the most terrible harm to the sensitive emotional patients.

Douglas hopes to resonate with patients who are also suffering from manic depressive disorder through his own records. What he hopes more is that the public can see the world of manic depressive patients in his paintings, sympathize with them, and truly stigmatize mental illness in their hearts.

Art, the way out for PTSD patients

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is less well-known than depression and bipolar disorder, but it should not be ignored.

Different from the randomness of the former two, PTSD is exogenous. It is often because of the war, violence, aggression, neglect and other phenomena that patients have experienced or witnessed. The forms of expression are very diverse, from internal depression and anxiety, personality dissociation, to external communication barriers, and so on.

Before-the-Dawn Perspective,by Terry Sullivan

And art therapy is recognized as the "life-saving straw" for PTSD patients. They communicated with their own experience through art, and found an outlet for peaceful coexistence with memory while describing. These are two paintings of Terry Sullivan, a PTSD patient, during his art therapy. He suffered from PTSD after a shooting on the train after work.

Man on Train Reading a Comic Book and Blowing a Bubble,by Terry Sullivan

Not only PTSD, but also for depression and bipolar disorder, art is a way for patients to get along with their emotions peacefully. When language and words are powerless to express, oil painting, sketch and sculpture can become a utopian paradise for sensitive emotional patients.

A single thought makes no sense

Poster of the film "One Read, No Vision"

Yinian Wuming is a Buddhist term, which refers to the fundamental confusion of life itself. At the same time, this is also a 2017 Hong Kong public service film. Yu Wenle plays a bipolar disorder patient at the bottom of society in the film.

The fear, discrimination and stigmatization of the "normal people" to the mentally ill in the film make everyone who has seen it feel frightened.

The film shows us from the perspective of the mentally ill that in fact, the so-called psychosis only chooses a different way to understand and express emotions from ordinary people, just because most people are normal, so a few people become sick.

The end of the film "One Read, No Vision"

"Emotional disease treatment is a long-term struggle. The heart of trauma treatment not only needs appropriate treatment and community support, but also needs the public to remove negative labels, give understanding and support, and feel and care with empathy."

This is the hope of the director of "One Read Without Sight", and it is also the voice of all people who fight against mental diseases.

While appreciating these amazing works, we should not ignore the sick and desolate world of the mentally ill behind these works. Art is like a bridge between the two worlds of patients and normal people. This bridge is a way for them to vent their emotions, but for healthy us, it is a way for us to "see the eyes of different dimensions".

In fact, there are many "Infernal Hell" in the world that we cannot see or imagine, and some of them are not far away from us, even near us. Emotional illness, domestic violence, overwork in the workplace, bullying on campus and so on, are not the few marginalized phenomena that are ignored or selectively ignored by public opinion.

Marcelo Toledo, Argentine sculptor

Sculpture inspired by scars on victims of domestic violence

Some people say that the degree of civilization of a country, society or nation should be judged not by the strong, but by how they treat the weak. In this regard, we have to admit that the corresponding care system of European and American countries is worth learning.

Tender's worshop activity in a British high school

In London, there is an art education institution called Tender, which cooperates with many high schools and universities in the UK. Different from other institutions, they carry out training on the prevention of domestic violence. This organization intervenes from teenagers by means of interactive drama, painting and other arts to prevent them from becoming violent or abused later.

We can see that the art field has always played a leading role in the topic of marginalized groups. The reason why art is noble is that even if the artist is in prison, he should also have the soul of the world in mind. This is also a tradition in the field of art. The world's top art colleges often prefer it and encourage students to speak for the disadvantaged groups. The instructor of Natural Light Zhengzhou Art Collection encourages students to refer to these directions to find the topic of collection creation.

Animation Cage 'Bough clip

Du Pengpeng, a graduate from New York Preet College of Art As a Chinese international student majoring in animation MFA, his graduation project Cage 'Broken Branch was nominated for the 2018 student Oscar. This is a short film about the materialization of women in the patriarchal society, not only for the feudal society, but also for the times we are now in.

Therefore, the attention to these "gray topics" is not only based on the requirements of the so-called "humanitarianism" or "moral concepts". This is our responsibility as artists. We have the ability to create, design, and paint. We know what the public likes to see and hear. We should also speak for those who cannot or dare not speak.

Today, Zhengzhou Art Collection Institute has brought a series of topics of concern to marginalized groups. We hope that all students who study art will not only aim to obtain the offer of an ideal school, graduate, and find suitable jobs, but also find the true meaning of humanities in the process of achieving these goals. Similarly, when students really understand and have humanistic thinking and care for society, I believe that colleges and universities will certainly throw olive branches to you.

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