PRESS RELEASE
Event: Art Exhibition
Title: Bilateral: Two Sides -- One Story
Date: 5th - 10th October 2009
Time: 10am -5pm
Place: ROCDA Gallery
Opening: Monday 5th October, 6pm.
73 Princes Street
Dunedin
New Zealand
WHO: Fleur Kelsey (Dunedin)
Clinicians have always had the power in mental health treatment. Traditionally they are the gatekeepers to madness,
being able to label and treat without regard for the wider social context that people find themselves in. Clinicians
power to label and describe shape the outcomes, attitudes and qualitative experience of those seeking services.
Fleur Kelsey has been busy working on a series of artworks called "Bilateral- Two Sides, One Story" This is for an art
exhibition exploring themes around mental health treatment from an experiential perspective that Fleur plans to exhibit
in full early next year.
This work uses the artists own history to explore mental health treatments from a lived position, making sense of the
experience and offering it up as an exploration of contemporary issues. The work draws on a tradition of feminist
investigation into women's experience and the meanings of experience. Authorship and the authority to reveal what goes
on behind closed doors is an important consideration with this body of work, as the artist claims her right to display
and modify her history..
This exhibition combines clusters of paintings with an installation work.
Fleur Kelsey graduated with a BFA (Painting) from Otago Polytechnic in 2006. She is an emerging artist working with
ideas around children, family life, shared experiences and community practices. She currently works across the
disciplines to produce paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations.
A preview of the work will be available to view during Mental Health Awareness Week at ROCDA Gallery.
ENDS