Artist Statement

This project stems from my subjective experiences dealing with mental illness and detachment from self/reality. Mental health is a spectrum; it is a unique experience to each sufferer and the symptoms, treatment and diagnosis are never universal. By using self-portraiture and water/distortion as methods, my work steps away from the typical dark imagery surrounding depression and instead investigates a vague sense of self, feelings of isolation, fogginess and a distant melancholy of loss. This detachment from reality also leads into questioning of what is essentially “normal” behaviour and characteristics, and why even the slightest deviation from a socially constructed view is defined as abnormal. It challenges the perceptions and stigma around the experience of mental health, encouraging the viewer to look beyond the surface of what it is that they see and believe that they know.

Artist Bio

Taygan Bassi is a Melbourne-based mixed media artist currently engaged in her Honours at the RMIT School of Art. Originally trained as a commercial photographer, she uses these techniques in her contemporary mixed media artwork to explore the concepts of mental health and identity within the reality of societal norms.