Exposure and Visibility: How does Bobby Baker use performance art to re-align the stigma of mental illness?
Exposure and visibility of mental illness is a highly disputed and controversial conversation. By definition, visibility means ‘the degree to which something can be seen by the public’ (Cambridge, et al., 2017) and exposure means ‘the fact of experiencing something or being affected by it because of being in a particular situation or place’ (Cambridge, et al., 2017) and this will be the subject of this essay in the context of mental illness.
In terms of performance art, Bobby Baker is situated along with the growth in the creation of performance art and the artists in the seventies. Despite having a long career creating work, the works …show more content…
14) which is the main concept of the drawings. The illness of which Bobby Baker was suffering was ‘dramatically embodied in hallucinations… about her own non-humanness.’ (Watson, 2012, p. 22) which is clear for an audience when observing the drawings, they contain elements that clearly show the elements of ‘non-humanness’ that Baker describes. This part of the drawings is the most shocking for an audience, the drawings have elements of ‘normative notions of sanity and unsettles notions of rationality and causality.’ (Watson, 2012, pp. 25-26). From an audience perspective, it appears easier to understand the mental illness as there are recognisable sections that can be related to by people who aren’t suffering, which emphasises the shocking interruptions of the mental illness. This shock factor is what creates a deeper understanding, it highlights the parts of the stigma that people do not understand and makes a path for a greater recognition of the real personal accounts of those with mental illnesses. The way the drawings shock an audience makes it more visible, it allows for an audience to absorb a personal account and therefore understand something …show more content…
Artists like, Bob Flanagan, Yayoi Kusama, Martin O’Brien and Ron Athey all use different expressive modes like performance, painting, sculpture and installation as a way of creating the conversation around illnesses. By making works, it creates exposure for different kinds of illness such as, Cystic Fibrosis, Aids, psychological trauma and personality disorders and displaying that sufferers have nothing to hide when it comes to their illness. Understandably, the more work created around these stigmatised issues the more exposure and visibility they will have, and the use of personal accounts will help re-align the stigma and
Exposure and visibility of mental illness is a highly disputed and controversial conversation. By definition, visibility means ‘the degree to which something can be seen by the public’ (Cambridge, et al., 2017) and exposure means ‘the fact of experiencing something or being affected by it because of being in a particular situation or place’ (Cambridge, et al., 2017) and this will be the subject of this essay in the context of mental illness.
In terms of performance art, Bobby Baker is situated along with the growth in the creation of performance art and the artists in the seventies. Despite having a long career creating work, the works …show more content…
14) which is the main concept of the drawings. The illness of which Bobby Baker was suffering was ‘dramatically embodied in hallucinations… about her own non-humanness.’ (Watson, 2012, p. 22) which is clear for an audience when observing the drawings, they contain elements that clearly show the elements of ‘non-humanness’ that Baker describes. This part of the drawings is the most shocking for an audience, the drawings have elements of ‘normative notions of sanity and unsettles notions of rationality and causality.’ (Watson, 2012, pp. 25-26). From an audience perspective, it appears easier to understand the mental illness as there are recognisable sections that can be related to by people who aren’t suffering, which emphasises the shocking interruptions of the mental illness. This shock factor is what creates a deeper understanding, it highlights the parts of the stigma that people do not understand and makes a path for a greater recognition of the real personal accounts of those with mental illnesses. The way the drawings shock an audience makes it more visible, it allows for an audience to absorb a personal account and therefore understand something …show more content…
Artists like, Bob Flanagan, Yayoi Kusama, Martin O’Brien and Ron Athey all use different expressive modes like performance, painting, sculpture and installation as a way of creating the conversation around illnesses. By making works, it creates exposure for different kinds of illness such as, Cystic Fibrosis, Aids, psychological trauma and personality disorders and displaying that sufferers have nothing to hide when it comes to their illness. Understandably, the more work created around these stigmatised issues the more exposure and visibility they will have, and the use of personal accounts will help re-align the stigma and