The a-n Artist Bursary came at an ideal time for me during the period of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. Enabling me to undertake extensive research and development for mentoring and to start developing a new artwork ‘Mirrored to the core (Schizophrenic love)’.
During the time working on the bursary, I have made new contacts and identified new collaborators and academics who have helped me to progress this new artwork. Having mentoring with Andrew Carnie helped me to consider how best I could work on arts projects informed by medical research and collaborate with academics. Kate Street helped me to look at how an exhibition might look when upscaling the sculptural elements.
Moving image artist Kye Wilson helped me to research relevant books and journals relating to love, emotions and schizophrenia. In our search we came across an academic paper ‘Emotion in Schizophrenia: Where Feeling Meets Thinking’ by Ann Kring and Jenelle Caponigro. That I understood could be romantically and poetically translated in part in my new artwork. Ann Kring a leading world expert on love, emotions and schizophrenia is professor at University California, Berkeley, USA. She has agreed to inform and have future conversations with me that will feed into the new project.
Because of my bursary this project has now evolved since my first concepts came about. During this period, I was contacted by Rosalind Parker an opera director and voice coach. As soon as Rosie had suggested a collaboration, I knew my current project would be ideal. I then realised I had to find a composer, I was put in contact with Jerome van den Berghe, a musical director. He liked what I told him about the new project and so the collaborations began.
Since completing the a-n Artist Bursary I have now received Arts Council England funding to make ‘Mirrored to the core (Schizophrenic love)’. The video art project is about two schizophrenic people who meet and fall in love. Communicating through ‘heard voices’ of the subconscious mind, their telepathy is represented by operatic singing, graphics and a contemporary musical soundscape. Romantically and poetically translating scientific research into video art. The artwork will be informed by workshops including neurodiverse participants, opera singers and schizophrenic actors. The collaborative, cross-disciplinary project, will culminate in an online panel discussion and screenings of the completed artwork. The video artwork is intended to be the first stage of a larger project, a later stage will result in a physical art exhibition when it is safe to do so.
