ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE : OPENING A DIALOGUE
JACKY WICKENS
March - April 2017
Lane House Arts Gallery, Bath
Another in our series of gallery takeovers where the artist co-curates an exhibition with us.
"The body of work featured in this show has been motivated by the desire to open a dialogue surrounding mental illness.
Some 16 years after being diagnosed with clinical depression and severe anxiety, I am positive the time has come to openly communicate my own experience in order to assist in combating the stigma that still encompasses mental ill health. Through photography, sculpture and text, I have attempted to visually represent what it personally feels like to live inside a mind that one often cannot trust.
Producing artwork based on my own struggle with depression and anxiety has not only proved to be cathartic for me but has helped to convey to others the subjective condition from which millions of individuals suffer. In exhibiting the work made over the past three years I hope to provide proof that, what may appear impossible from the bottom of a pit of eternal despair, is not necessarily so. That one can still can have a varied and fulfilling life regardless of a debilitating mental illness. In short, that you too can achieve the impossible."
Jacky Wickens graduated from Newbury College in June 2011 with a BTEC (extended diploma) in Art & Design: Distinction. She went on to study at Bath Spa University, School of Art and Design, graduating in July 2016 with a BA (Hons) 2:1 in Contemporary Arts Practice.
In 2013 she had work published by the mental health charity rethinkyourmind after winning a competition to feature in their publication Yellow Book which is available free of charge via the NHS. The winning photograph, Path, is pictured below. She chooses to make artwork because it is a way of processing her own life experiences and it assists in controlling her mental illness. It enables her to communicate with others in a highly expressive manner which she finds cathartic. Her primary medium is photography but she will work in other media if she feels they better fit her ideas.
In 2013 she had work published by the mental health charity rethinkyourmind after winning a competition to feature in their publication Yellow Book which is available free of charge via the NHS. The winning photograph, Path, is pictured below. She chooses to make artwork because it is a way of processing her own life experiences and it assists in controlling her mental illness. It enables her to communicate with others in a highly expressive manner which she finds cathartic. Her primary medium is photography but she will work in other media if she feels they better fit her ideas.
