Many artists and designers have chosen to explore the theme of mental
health, whether as an observer or as a route to aid their own mental wellbeing.
It is interesting that there seems to be a strong correlation between creative
individuals and mental illness and a significant portion of the artist
community have experience with a mental health problem. For example artist
Yayoi Kusama who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder has said "If it
were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago" and uses
her artwork as a ‘self-therapy’. Her work has a definite obsessive tendency
throughout, with a lot of repetition and pattern in works such as her ‘Infinity
Net’ paintings and stuffed fabric installations and textile/fashion pieces. It
would be interesting to see if the same kind of therapeutic feeling could be
created through fashion garments intended to free the user from their
oppressive mental thoughts.
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| Infinity Net - Yayoi Kusama |
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| Yayoi Kusama |
Another artist I
have looked at is Natalia Pereira who created a series of photographs entitled ‘Dismorfobina’.
(see http://emilytanfashion.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/mind-vs-body.html)
The portraits depict faces which have been distorted using elastic in order to
show the feeling of being uncomfortable in your own skin. They also expose how
sufferers of body dysmorphic disorder might view themselves. These kinds of
feelings could be brought into fashion using itchy and uncomfortable fabrics
and awkward distorted silhouettes which are not visually pleasurable to look
at. Alternatively garments could be presented in layers, outwardly trying to
convey confidence whilst layers close to the body exhibit the true internal
struggle and discomfort felt by the individual.
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