The illuminating ‘Dark Side’ of mental health, as artists see it
A new exhibition and suite of programs across the Edith Cowan University and the National Art School pool thinking and experiences to create a dark space for unpacking mental health in the arts.
9 Jun 2021
Ted Snell
Visual Arts
D’Arcy Coad, detail of collage, DARK SIDE exhibition presented by Edith Cowen University. Image courtesy the artist.
Everybody has a dark side, a place of fear and dread they go to voluntarily or not. Managing that part of our lives is crucial to health and well-being, as COVID-19 has highlighted. However, it requires self-awareness, courage, and resilience to confront that aspect of your psyche.
The process of confronting the dark side is admittedly both painful and productive. Artists have always worked in that penumbral space, on the cusp between dark and light. For most their studio is a safe place when external pressures have the potential to overwhelm and where the dark side can be harnessed.
Professor Ted Snell, AM CitWA, is Honorary Professor, School of Arts
& Humanities, Edith Cowan University. Over the past three decades he
has contributed to the national arts agenda as Chair of the Visual Arts
Board of the Australia Council, Artbank,
the Asialink Visual Arts Advisory Committee, University Art Museums
Australia and as a board member of the National Association for the
Visual Arts. He is currently Chair of Regional Arts WA, on the board of
ANAT and the Fremantle Biennale. He has been a commentator
on the arts for ABC radio and television, Perth art reviewer for The
Australian and is a regular contributor to local and national journals.
