Mental Illness and disability are key themes in my personal life and my creative practice. In 2014 and 2015 I collaborated on this photo media work with artists Angelina Martinez and David Corby. Exploring self-injury in an art-based approach to cultivating empathy, understanding and mindfulness this work used the flower of life motif, a geometric pattern of overlapping circles as a metaphor for self-transformation. The scars used in the work are the spiralling leaf scars from the ancient pandanus tree, the species Pandanus tectorius. This work is conceptualised as a nod to Sophie Calle’s work, ‘Take Care of Yourself ‘ (2007) . It forms part of series of my autobiographical photo media works which represent queer relationships, break-ups, correspondences, health and well-being, anxiety, social phobia, depression and PTSD as subjects for art making as a re-authoring narrative form. This recent series builds out from a 1995 documentary work titled: ‘Engaged’ a queer video art work about men who have sex with men during the HIV AIDs pandemic.
Take Care of Yourselves: Re-authoring Self-Harm
