BorderLines + It’s a Mad World

BorderLines:
 an artistic examination into mental health diagnoses
curated by: Pierre Leichner

Exhibition runs: June 14th – July 28th, 2013

Opening reception: Fri June 14th, 7 – 10pm


Mad Pride Cabaret: Sat July 13th, 7 – 10.30pm

When does a behavior, mood, thought become a disorder?

BorderLines is a group art exhibition that engages with ideas concerning borders around behaviour, mood and thoughts that are defined by contemporary Western medicine. By exploring the borders of shapes, architecture and objects that evoke emotional response, each artist seeks an imaginative response to this complex topic.

Mental illness labeling can be destructive and limiting; it can also help us understand and specify certain behavioural traits, creating space for a deeper comprehension of our psychological makeup. This show addresses the boundaries and boxes that have been created by western medicine. Through their creative practices, ten diverse contemporary artists will question the fabric of these definitions, both disrupting and developing our knowledge of mental health.  Working in a variety of interdisciplinary media, and under the direction of artist and curator Pierre Leichner (who was a psychiatrist for over 35 years), the artists reflected on their own experiences and perspectives regarding mental disorders diagnosis and its varied effects.

Being diagnosed as a borderline personality is often a pejorative label even in psychiatric services. It implies someone who is angry, critical, moody, and who often questions the system. So called personality disorders is one of the diagnostic categories that has drawn recent criticisms about the method of diagnosing used by contemporary Western medicine.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV) of Mental Disorders of the American Association is a categorical classification system, which has grown in size since the 1970s. It is a categorical and rigid system of classification as opposed to a multi-dimensional, fluid one. Its use is being globalized. It is thus becoming an essential device that has the capacity to, orientate, determine, model, and insure the actions, conduct, opinions and discourse of living beings. The next DSM V book is due to be launched in 2013, as such, our proposed exhibition and the discussions it will engender, are very timely.

By applying contemporary art praxis, BorderLines will address the term “borders”, specifically where it relates to delineations within a psychological medical model. Post-modern paradigms that influence contemporary art, and the perception of art as social, interdisciplinary and issue-based, have created space for the borders between art/non-art and art/society to shift.

All of the artists have been selected for this show because of the ways in which they already think outside of normative societal boundaries. In their existing work they are challenging pre-existing assumptions around classification, with some having worked within the mental health field as caregivers and others having personal experience of this subject matter.

Persimmon Blackbridge‘s politics have fostered her fearless, innovative art, with her being described provocatively as, “learning-disabled – lesbian – cleaning-lady – sculptor – performer – madwoman”.  Susanna Blunt is a painter and sculptor who creates new hybrid forms that defy recognition. Olga Campbell is an interdisciplinary artist whose sculptures and photographs deconstruct the border between inside and outside. Eric Deis is a large-scale photographer whose works capture the stark realism often implicit in a marginal social world. Bernadine Fox uses her mixed media paintings to invite the viewer into her personal world where she deconstructs and de-stigmatizes mental conditions. Eve Lagarde uses words in artist books to bridge poetically the coldness of clinical diagnosis with humanity. Mark Mizgala plays on notions of identity and stereotyping of personalities within a conceptual art framework. Jay Peachy is an interdisciplinary artist and mental health activist who conceptualizes with humour to heal and dispel our prejudices. Matt Sabourin re-appropriates and subverts everyday objects by injecting new meaning onto them. Linda Schmidt is a sculptor whose works invites people to be aware of fitting into predefined spaces.

This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the BC Arts Council.

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Quand est ce qu’un comportement, une humeur, une pensée deviennent un trouble mental? BorderLines est une exposition multidisciplinaire d’art qui défie les idées sur des frontières autour comportements, les humeurs, les pensées tel que définit par la médecine occidental.
Le Manuel Diagnostic et Statistique des Troubles Mentaux de l’Association des Psychiatres Américains est un système de classification catégorique qui devient utiliser a travers le monde. Le prochain DSM V va paraître en 2013  et cette exposition et les dialogues qu’elle va susciter sont donc opportuns……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 In conjunction with…  

Salon Shop presents
It’s a Mad World
Exhibit runs: June 14th – July 28th, 2013
Opening reception: Fri June 14th, 7 – 10pm

In celebration of Mad Pride 2013, local creative and mad artists from the Gallery Gachet and Downtown Eastside community are featured in our Salon Shop.

Mad Pride is an international movement created by psychiatric survivors, consumers, folks labeled “mentally ill” – all of us that proudly reclaim the words mad & crazy, and those in solidarity with us. We are mad. We are crazy. And we are damn proud to be. We believe madness is a completely sane and well-adjusted response to living in such a mad world. That’s the theme for this exhibit – how do you deal with the concept of “madness” in a world like this one?

All of this madness will culminate in a Mad Pride Cabaret of festivities taking place on Sat July 13th 2013, 7 – 10.30pm at Gallery Gachet.

The Salon Shop is a micro-gallery space within 88 East Cordova dedicated to the presentation of Gachet and local community members’ work. This space is coordinated by Karen Ward, Cherise Clarke, Ayaz Kamani and Ali Lohan.

For more info, please contact programming@gachet.org or call 604 687 2468.