Tales of the Surreal – Jo Darbyshire
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Opening Night 29 November 6–8pm.
Stories From the Oral History Collection, Heathcote Hospital.
Tales of the Surreal is part of Tilt, a series of annual exhibitions that invite an artist to respond to the unique history and landscape of Point Heathcot/Kooyagordup. This year's Tilt artist, Jo Darbyshire explores the its significant mental health history through the surrealist lens.
Surrealism was a worldwide phenomenon when Heathcote opened in 1929 and Darbyshire has always been interested in the connection between Surrealism and concepts of madness. When asked to make new work about the Heathcote Mental Health Reception Centre she took the opportunity to explore some of the strategies used by the Surrealists: collective ventures, poetry and the use of found objects in artworks.
Stories that resonated had something of the surreal about them, a startling relationship with a material (feathers, hair, bone), the erotic, or the unconscious. They suddenly made me identify with the patient or the staff member- to be in their body, to inhabit madness, and to work in a place that both contained and maintained madness.
Gallery open: Tue–Fri 10am–3pm, Sat/Sun 12–4pm.
Image credit: The Nurse sat with me silently, 2019, material, found mannequin, horse hair.
Photo taken by Eva Fernandez.