Author Archives: Alex

About Alex

Currently a second year New Media student at Ryerson University, Taking part in a work study program at the DMP at Ryerson as A Multi-Media Assistant.

Calling in depressed today

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An art peice where there is a repetition of images where people are sitting at office cubicles facing each other, with the backside of a single person standing in the foreground and a wall of text in the background

Artist: Carolyn Lee-Jones
Year: 2015
Medium: Shadow box
Artist Statement: This shadow box juxtaposes the personal nature of madness with the public nature of work to explore the complex process behind deciding whether to disclose a Mad identity in the workplace. Ultimately, this piece challenges current understandings of madness, work and disclosure to consider mad positive alternatives in the workplace that benefit mad people as well as their employers.

Hysteric

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Digital image of the x-ray of a skull

Artist: Samantha Kranyak
Year: 2015
Medium: Digital Image
Artist Statement: What causes hysteria? What makes a nymphomaniac? Sex on the mind? This digital painting illustrates a modern take on a past common ‘culprit’ of hysteria, ‘the wandering womb.’

Ritalin as a psychological rapist

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Painting of human faces accompanied by human hearts, DNA, a brain, and Pills

Artist: Jaclyn Nobrega
Year: 2014
Medium: Mixed Media and Poem
Artist Statement:
Poem: Ritalin as a psychological rapist
Spinning head, bouncing off the walls.
Blissfully pacing; back and fourth.
Indecision paralyzes progress.
Distracted by thrill of endless options.
The day is done, the darkness has come.
And still, pages remains untouched.
Vilified by teachers, and peers.
My soul is rejected, there are no longer cheers.
Labelled. Disabled.
“Crazy,” “On crack.”
Punishment. Exclusion. Alienated. Attacked.
The recurrence of untouched dreams, leads to a place where a psychiatrist deems.
The chemical arrives–it leaks to my brain
I hear sounds, I can hear my thoughts.
Pages are filled. Grades increase.
A once bubbling soul, and flourishing spirit no longer has any place to go.
My soul is moving. But my body is stuck.
My leg wants to shake, but I am now stuck in my thoughts.
I pay attention. But, can no longer speak.
My soul diminishes, among the dosage increase.
My emotions are sucked out.
Numbness appears.
My focus turns to darkness
I live in fear.
The voices outside hinder my thoughts.
A constant fear, an anxiety of freedom.
Repetition.
I am trapped in my thoughts.
Unable to run, unable to scream.
I cannot cry. I cannot sing.
I can complete, and stay on task.
But my soul has vanished.
I am unable to laugh.
A sadness remains,
It lingers inside.
Long after I have come down, off this unwelcomed high.