stigma: a mark of disgrace

I find it difficult to talk about mental health. It seems much easier to bring up the weather, or the latest annoyances with public transport, or just anything else instead – which is troubling, because it is reported that nearly 50% of the population will experience a mental disorder at some stage in their lives, whether episodic or persistent.¹ Half a population is hardly a minority and yet somehow, still there is a fog of stigma surrounding mental illness. Perhaps it is because of the invisibility of the pain – it is difficult to have conversations about the intangible and deeply personal. Perhaps it is fear, or shame, or ignorance. Whatever the reason, it is precisely this silence that contributes to the isolation, the “other-ing”², and the misrepresentation of those already struggling.

STIGMA: Dismantled, Revealed is an exhibition showcasing creative practices of seven contemporary artists with lived experiences of mental illness and explores their personal relationships with stigma. It is an affecting example of how meaningful discourse could emerge through empowering marginalised voices to be heard and appreciated.

---

• 

• 

• 

dismantle: to take apart

Step into the Melbourne Brain Centre and through the unassuming sliding glass doors of The Dax Centre to be greeted by a varied body work – ranging from watercolours, to embroidery, to sculptural mixed media, to a woven installation. The latter is a piece by current Artist in Residence, Jessie Brooks-Dowsett.

• 

• 

Interlaced, Jessie Brooks-Dowsett, 2019.

From across the gallery, Interlaced appears to be a flexible wire mesh in the shape of an open dome, suspended just above head-height. Visually, it piques curiosity. Hanging down beyond the edges of the structure is an assortment of colourful bits and bobs – translucent tubing, reflective streamers, plastic string, to name a few.  They seem incongruous to the overall silhouette, but there is also an unmistakeable carefulness to how they are woven into the wire tapestry. The art of weaving is particularly apt in discussions involving the marginalised – historically it recalls a sense of community ³, of testimonials by those unable to speak under unjust regimes ⁴, and even of therapeutic healing ⁵.

However, the form and shape alone of Brook-Dowsett’s work does not fully communicate her considerations about stigma. It is her process in creating it that may be more significant. She had invited gallery visitors to join in her weaving, combining wire and found objects to then later be integrated into the larger installation. There wasn’t a one-sided relationship of art informing viewer. The act of participation and co-creation empowered the artist, who carried her own narratives of stigma, to be the initiator of conversations surrounding mental health.

• 

Artist Brooks-Dowsett, herself, explains in the gallery’s Q&A style panel: “there needs to be more conversations about mental health. It isn’t a binary where you’re healthy on one side and sick on the other. There is a continuum.” ⁶ Her statement underscores her installation and returns in echoes as you explore other works put forth by fellow exhibiting artists; the issue of stigmatisation exists in interwoven narratives. It is a tangle of various systems – from the collective: institutional and medical discourse, media representations, to the individual: internalised self-perceptions, immediate relationships.

---

“there needs to be more conversations about mental health. It isn’t a binary where you’re healthy on one side and sick on the other. There is a continuum.”

Jessie Brooks-Dowsett

reveal: to make known what was not

I admire how the exhibition does not attempt to be over-ambitious in its disentanglement of stigma. Instead, stays simple and accessible: affirming a misrepresented group, encouraging individual connections within a safe space, and perhaps more importantly, reminding us of the ways we are participants in each other’s experiences.

A room for visitors to pen responses for the artists.

STIGMA: dismantled, revealed is currently showing until June 7, 2019. The Dax Centre also runs other public programs such as artist conversations and educational experiences. Do support them and find out more at  https://www.daxcentre.org/.

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Summary of Results, 2007”, Australian Bureau of Statistics, accessed April 10 2019, http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4326.0Main+Features32007?OpenDocument

2. Tony Fry, “A Geography of Power: Design History and Marginality,” Design Issues 6,1 (Autumn 1989): 16.

3. Marie Gravalos, “Conceptualizing community identity through ancient textiles: Technology and the uniformity of practice at Hyalcayan, Peru” (Master’s thesis, Purdue University Graduate School, 2014): 138.

4. Here, I refer to quilts made by slaves in which symbols were used to communicate with escaped slaves.
Lisa Garlock, “Stories in the Cloth: Art Therapy and Narrative Textiles,” Journal of the American Art Therapy Association 33, 2 (2016): 60.

5. In art therapy, story cloth can be used when working with trauma survivors.
Ibid, 61.

6. Monique O’Rafferty, “STIGMA: dismantled, revealed artists in conversation,” SANE Australia, accessed April 10, https://www.sane.org/the-sane-blog/wellbeing/stigma-dismantled-revealed-1.

Carla Mosqueda, 27398684

Gender stereotyping is high in the Philippines ¹ and unfortunately, sexist ideals remain pervasive in the communications and media industry. Through the decades, representations of Filipinas has always been controlled, their visibility constituting a “continuously romanticise(d) … imagining of their realities”. ² It is then disappointing to that local newspapers remain heavy-handed in discriminating against women – one photojournalist job listing only calling for men. ³ The visibility of a female Philippine photographer on a public stage is then so important.

Shelter from Storm Photo Series, Hannah Reyes Morales, 2013.

---

Manila City Jail Photo Series, Hannah Reyes Morales, 2019.

---

­Hannah Reyes Morales is a photojournalist based in the Philippines. Her work aims to authentically document local narratives – from the larger than life, to the everyday and intimate. Her work explores individuals in complex situations – from Filipina women who had entered the sex industry after a devastating typhoon, to middle-class seafarers returning home to their family after years away, to inmates suffering the inefficiencies of the Philippine judiciary system.⁴ The candid quality in her photography, where movement is captured mid-action, alongside minimal post-edit colour treatment, relay a sense of humanity in the subject’s experiences.

Morales acknowledges her challenges in starting out as a female photographer, sharing: “one of the first things I was told was that I was only hired because I was the boss’s type.” ⁵ She recounts how misogyny initially led her to feel uncomfortable as herself and inauthentic. This can be incredibly damaging in the field of photography, where the photographer’s own perspectives can influence what stories get told, and in turn what images shape the public sphere.

In fact, it is her own personal narratives that lend her images a truthfulness and vulnerability. Remembering her work with rape and trafficking victims, she shares, “being able to talk to these women and relate their story to mine was very eye-opening.” ⁶ She shares the efforts she puts into trying as much as possible to close the distance between photographer and subject. Connecting with, and not just capturing, the subjects is important to her craft – especially when it comes to documenting experiences which already bear undertones of stigma and alienation.

Invisible City Photo Series, Hannah Reyes Morales, 2018.

---

As stirring as I find most of her work, Invisible City is the one I find myself drawn back to. It is a photo series that is accompanied by words from Hannah Morales herself. She describes the situation: in the midst of political tensions and bloodshed, images of death, violence and despair were normalized, having been saturated in the media’s discussions of human rights. Wanting to understand sentiments of those directly affected, Morales decided to document everyday narratives and in it, managed to capture moments of human dignity within the violent political atmosphere. It is jarring, it is stark, yet it is also tender.

Claire Raymond’s statement is worth noting, “The mere fact of a woman holding a camera in public … does not mean that the photographs she produces with that camera will be feminist.” ⁷ While I do not say I disagree, I nevertheless appreciate the women who hold the camera, directing their gazes, no longer just gazed upon.

1. Michael Prieler and Dave Centeno, “Gender Representation in Philippine Television Advertisements,” Sex Roles 69,5-6 (September 2013): 281.

2. Tacata Baicy, “Gazing Upon the Other: The Politics of Representing the Igorot in Philippine Modernism.” (Master’s thesis, The University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 2017),

3. Coconuts Manila, “Female Photographers Blast the Philippine Star for ‘Sexist’ Job Advertisement, ” Coconuts Manila, accessed April 12,
https://coconuts.co/manila/news/female-photographers-blast-philippine-star-sexist-job-advertisment/.

4. Hannah Reyes Morales, “Hannah Reyes Morales,” Hannah Reyes Morales, accessed April 12, 2019, http://hannah.ph/.

5. Kerry Manders, “WOMEN TALK: Hannah Reyes Morales,” Women Photograph, accessed April 11, 2019,
https://www.womenphotograph.com/news/2018/4/30/women-talk.

6. Taken from scmp.com
Laurie Chen, “How an award-winning Filipino photographer overcame personal adversity to excel in her field,” Society, South China Morning Post, Saturday 2 December 2, 2017, accessed April 12, 2019,
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2122329/how-award-winning-filipino-photographer-overcame-personal .

7. Claire Raymond, Women Photographers and Feminist Aesthetics (Routledge, 2017), 87.

Carla Mosqueda, 27398684