Can one map one’s mental illness? (2024), sculptures
Can one map one’s mental illness? amid the differences and contrasts, there are shared grounds, forms of appearance that transcend the individual. This sculptural fashion dares to visualize these forms. It aims to convey a sense of the opacity and anonymity surrounding mental illness, expressing the overwhelming barriers it creates – even between those who seem just a breath apart.
Artist biography
Aprilla is a Leipzig based multi media conceptual artist specialised in tailoring, textile design and applied arts. In addition to exploring various fields of design and art over the last ten years, she has repeatedly worked in socio-psychological and caring areas, which have involved dealing with marginalised social groups and breaking down distances. For a while, she explored aspects of dealing sensitively with extreme human situations from a different direction by working in a funeral parlour.
Wearing My Mental Illness (“WMMI”) by Aprilla
In a world that demands rapid adaptation and change, do you often feel like a defective chameleon, flickering in all colours and textures, unable to remain true to yourself? This phenomenon is not just a mood, but an automatism. This is now the new you! But is it really "you"? It often feels as if there are several 'I's. Constantly forced to adapt, constantly pushed into new identity crises. It is impossible to fathom how many and which facets of your personality construct originate from yourself and which from your clinical picture. What 'should' or 'may' be and what not? What about your 'code', your brain? What comes from you and what doesn't? Which conflicts can you still choose for yourself?
Similar to a butterfly, people also go through metamorphoses, but not once with the semi-linear, confident process of maturation, but often as a back and forth. Shapeshifting in terms of their abilities, judgement, the control and regulation of emotional states and not infrequently external appearances such as day and night, often even like the times of day and seasons of another world. These changes often have a positive connotation. People not only speak of personal growth, maturity and development when someone changes, but also exoticise the value of the experience into the creative and grandiose. However, in the case of mental illness, these metamorphoses can take a dark turn. The transformation can lead to a downward spiral and becomes agonising because the person affected has no control over it.
Has a butterfly decided to become one? Does a butterfly really feel magnificent?
Does it feel sheltered? But still free?
Has a butterfly decided to become one? Does a butterfly really feel magnificent?
Does it feel sheltered? But still free?
Similar psychological and psychosomatic symptoms often occur in groups of people with similar circumstances, especially among FLINTA (women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender people). This observation was incorporated into the research for "WMMI". Aprilla wants to draw attention to the "gender data gap" in mental illness, which leads to the unique challenges of FLINTA people not being adequately recognised and treated. With her work, she is committed to making this discrepancy visible and raising awareness of the fact that mental illness is experienced differently in different social contexts and gender identities, as the characteristics of mental health problems are themselves shaped by the influence of the environment.
For her work, Aprilla has designed a series of accessories that embody different mental states. The designs are based on her own experience, as well as research into how other mentally ill and neurodiverse people creatively represent their perceptions. She is particularly interested in how people from all groups use metaphors and idioms to convey their inner processes - which are also understandable for neurotypical people because they often function intuitively and associatively and do not have to be consciously constructed.
Aprilla's work explores the complex interplay between adaptation and social illusions of self-determination and the often overlooked reality of mental illness. It illuminates the extent to which such involuntary changes - metamorphoses - of the self can become a painful and life-threatening process. It reminds viewers to look closely at the consequences, to question social structures that lack flexibility and understanding for such metamorphoses and instead promote stigmatisation and isolation.