Over the past year, eight amazing artists have committed their practice to research, featuring their artwork in The Artist Citizen exhibition. Artists involved included Andy Coote, Eliza Leahy, Glenn Brady, Travis Mitchell, Kathy Oliver, Richelle Spence, Paul Munro and Wayne Howie. The exhibition attempted to situate these eight as citizens among citizens, artists among artists seeking to reject stereotypes of the genius artist, the eccentric or mad artist. The exhibition provided the artists with an insight into the broader sphere of social and cultural standards for art and mental illness. This enabled the artists to narrate and to direct their experience of the artist beyond the boundaries of an ‘Outsider’.

The knowledge and experience surrounding art by the person with a mental illness is riddled with myths and judgments that rarely cite the perspective of the artist themselves. Complex boundaries are imposed on art created by a person with a mental illness. The artist with a mental illness is situated in intricate intercultural and interpersonal political circumstances closely tied to their illness. The discourse in which the artist with a mental illness is thrust, names the individual in a way that contains an attitude towards their art production. Much of the dialogue and distribution of art by people with a mental illness has been situated around the term Outsider Art (Cardinal, 1972) and the term Art Brut coined by Dubuffet, 1949 (Maizels, 2002). The English term Outsider Artist, suggests artists falling under this label create work with an indifference and ignorance of the public world of art. There is no consensus on the classification of Outsider Art and the term is confused by sub-categories such as Raw Art, Naïve Art and Psychotic Art. The rationale for Outsider Art, has contributed to a location for the artist, where social, economic and psychological exclusion is also associated with aesthetic exclusion (Moran, 2002).

The production and reproduction of the identity of artist for a person with a mental illness is a transformative process. For the eight artists involved in this project, there was a continual struggle to identify their art in a genre that did not place it within a disabilities or illness category. Issues that emerged through the artwork for the exhibition reflected concepts of connection and isolation, self and encounter. Interviews with the artists recorded in their studio exposed the common struggle and dislocation with contemporary culture they each experience. The mythical notion of Outsider Artist creates narrow membership. This experience is reflected by the artist Munro; “I’d say [I am] just an outsider artist trying to get by like everyone else. I definitely feel that I am outside the gallery sort of like space…as you know there are not many spaces for outsider art in Queensland.” To exist as a thriving artist in Queensland, people with a mental illness need access to spaces, advice, support and places where they can create art of varying levels and exhibit its production to diverse audiences.

The Artist Citizen exhibition had an ambition to move beyond the myths and stigmas of outsider status associated with mental illness to the aesthetic consideration of the art industry. “What inspires me is a passion for the visual and aesthetic values of the modern world,” claims Coote. The eight artists featured in this exhibition highlight how contemporary artists embrace many practices to disentangle boundaries, conventions and how they work towards linking ideas and actions into new aesthetic encounters. The work of each artist was individually distinct. Some artists worked with a rich painterly texture, others incorporated multi media and exquisite realistic detail through traditional mediums. Themes ranged from a reflection of the self, to social commentary and exploration of illness through ritualistic process. Embracing the wider cultural community, these artists as contemporary artists with a mental illness seek to operate within the context of contemporary culture and offer informed interpretation of their unique position and experiences and to respond to it on their own terms.

The eight artists voiced aspirations to be recognized as legitimate artists in their community. “I want to grow outside of this very narrow mental health exhibition [space]” claims Oliver. Curating The Artist Citizen exhibition illustrated the challenges facing the artist with a mental illness in gaining access to mainstream opportunities. The relationships between the artist and community, culture and value are constrained by a distinctive aesthetic construct both for the work being produced and the role of the artist with a mental illness. Mitchell challenged these constraints as he identifies his desire for a rewarding career in his artist statement; “My life objective is to develop and sustain a rewarding career in the community cultural development sector locally and globally at all levels.” In seeking to identify as an artist rather than as a person with a mental illness making art, these eight artists have aspirations for recognition and validation in the contemporary art world.

“We all have struggles, we all integrate into this world trying to make sense & meaning,” states Spence. Showcased at Metro Arts in March 2009, the exhibition has supported these independent artists to present and develop work in a professional gallery and contributed to the development of their individual artistic practice and community engagement beyond spaces related to their illness. The Artist Citizen challenged industry thinking around an artist with a mental illness, increasing opportunities for audience development and encouraged critical thinking of how we perceive our cultural diversity and address issues of disabilities and illness. It appoints dialogue for new ways of thinking that lead outside the boundaries imposed on mental illness and art. For truthful narratives of the artist with a mental illness to continue to emerge, external recognition of the artist’s own identity and right of entry to gainfully participate and access creative communities outside of health setting are vital.

CARDINAL, R. (1972) Outsider Art, London, Studio Vista Blue Star House.

MAIZELS, J. (2002) Outsider Art Sourcebook, London, Raw Vision Ltd.

MORAN, L. (2002) Outiside Art: Inside or Out? IN HAYES, C.-M. L. (Ed. Thought Lines 6 An Anthology of Research. Dublin National College of Art and Design.

To view artists profiles and interviews go to www.artistcitizen.com/index