art student
Feedback was mainly positive. It was said that the messiness of the finished product was engaging. To which I’m not entirely sure if I agree, but my intention of portraying BPD came across well. I plan to put a frame around the front of the box on the wall to smooth out the edges and finalise it a bit more. I also would like a dramatic light above. I will still be experimenting with this piece although I got the reaction I wanted.
To achieve the illusion of the front of the box sitting as a normal frame would, I needed to create a false wall. Two wooden panels were placed in the corner of the studio to look like the rest of the wall. I made a shelf to attach to the front ‘wall’ and cut a square out with a jigsaw to show the box from. The effect is the one I was hoping for.
This is a shadow box piece exploring the theme of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
It depicts a state of mind. Three personalities struggling to coexist, amongst an army of relentless and unforgiving emotions. BPD is a disorder of mood, and how a person interacts with others. In this piece I have tried to represent some of the main symptoms of the illness. The three figures are three personalities. The personality nearest the back (holding the baby) is desperately trying to mother the other two, she is the primary personality and trying to keep everything together while obviously having to deal with everyday life. The baby is another personality, it is young, naïve and very dependant- it has to function in an adult body, in an adult life and obviously struggles with that a lot.
The frame, seen at eye level, protrudes 60cm behind the wall. Different layers of illustration are spaced from front to back of the box-frame, creating a staggered effect. Both frame and illustration are black and white.
The box, or frame is made from wood measured and cut to size with a table saw and screwed together. I then painted it black. The slides inside are made from thick card painted white. I drew the scenes with charcoal and cut around them with a scalpel before inserting them into the shadow box.
The main idea behind my work is personifying BPD. Translating something into an image is always a challenge, especially when it is a state of mind- but it’s a challenge I enjoy, and it helps people to understand better. Most people can relate to an image more than a diagnosis, or a dictionary definition. My hope is that my piece will bring BPD awareness and help non-sufferers to empathise.
My interest in this subject come primarily from a personal experience with the disorder. I am constantly aware that I am experiencing the world differently to those around me, and by putting this into a physical image that everyone else can see makes me feel more heard.
I first saw the shadow box concept in the Rijksmuseum, Gerrit Schouten. I was mesmerised by this layering effect, and how almost sculptural his work was. I have always admired the art of storytelling, and this technique did it well. The question from there was ‘what story did I want to tell?’.
This is a shadow box piece exploring the theme of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
It depicts a state of mind. Three personalities struggling to coexist, amongst an army of relentless and unforgiving emotions. BPD is a disorder of mood, and how a person interacts with others. In this piece I have tried to represent some of the main symptoms of the illness. The three figures are three personalities. The personality nearest the back (holding the baby) is desperately trying to mother the other two, she is the primary personality and trying to keep everything together while obviously having to deal with everyday life. The baby is another personality, it is young, naïve and very dependant- it has to function in an adult body, in an adult life and obviously struggles with that a lot.
The frame, seen at eye level, protrudes 60cm behind the wall. Different layers of illustration are spaced from front to back of the box-frame, creating a staggered effect. Both frame and illustration are black and white.
The box, or frame is made from wood measured and cut to size with a table saw and screwed together. I then painted it black. The slides inside are made from thick card painted white. I drew the scenes with charcoal and cut around them with a scalpel before inserting them into the shadow box.
The main idea behind my work is personifying BPD. Translating something into an image is always a challenge, especially when it is a state of mind- but it’s a challenge I enjoy, and it helps people to understand better. Most people can relate to an image more than a diagnosis, or a dictionary definition. My hope is that my piece will bring BPD awareness and help non-sufferers to empathise.
My interest in this subject come primarily from a personal experience with the disorder. I am constantly aware that I am experiencing the world differently to those around me, and by putting this into a physical image that everyone else can see makes me feel more heard.
I first saw the shadow box concept in the Rijksmuseum, Gerrit Schouten. I was mesmerised by this layering effect, and how almost sculptural his work was. I have always admired the art of storytelling, and this technique did it well. The question from there was ‘what story did I want to tell?’.
‘It all started when we lost our family home to a fire. All but a few precious items were destroyed. Two antique children’s books were saved. I wanted to find a way to salvage the beautiful illustrations. So with x-acto knife, tiny scissors and tweezers, I set out on a challenge. That was the birth of my first book sculpture.
I have been sculpting ever since. After sculpting professionally since 2011, I realize I can not plan it out. The book itself dictates how the sculpture will progress. No two sculptures have ever been alike. Each tells its own story.
It is now my full-time job to take old, damaged illustrated books and give them a new way of telling a story. After repairing or rebinding, I cut away all but the illustrations. I leave some in place, some I remove, and some I move around. The end result is bringing the book alive; telling the story visually. I can sculpt most any kind of book, so long as it is not brittle. Brittle pages equal crumbly sculpture and no one wants a crumbly sculpture. I never know what a sculpture will look like when I start. Each books seems to transform itself. ‘- Kelly Campbell, http://www.kellycampbellberry.com/.
I deeply enjoy the work of Katy Campbell. I came across her during my research and I think the greatest hook, again, was the narrative- the story telling. I think with this style of work the story is a very important aspect, so I should definitely try and incorporate that into my own work.
Toy theater, also called paper theater and model theater (also spelt theatre, see spelling differences), is a form of miniature theater dating back to the early 19th century in Europe. Toy theaters were often printed on paperboard sheets and sold as kits at the concession stand of an opera house, playhouse, or vaudeville theater. Toy theaters were assembled at home and performed for family members and guests, sometimes with live musical accompaniment. Toy theater saw a drastic decline in popularity with a shift towards realism on the European stage in the late 19th century, and again with the arrival of television after World War II. Toy theater has seen a resurgence in recent years among many puppeteers, authors and filmmakers and there are numerous international toy theater festivals throughout the Americas and Europe. 
I found this form of art while researching shadow box art and found it to be much closer to the design I have created. The difference is that a theatre tells a story, where my piece is more of a snapshot. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t like to explore the idea of story telling, as I have visited this theme many times in the past. I love to tell stories, I’m just not sure which stories I’m ready to tell yet.
Cornell’s signature art form is the shadow box. Infused with a dream-like aura, the shadow boxes invite the viewer into Cornell’s own private, magical world. Alternately known as “memory boxes” or “poetic theaters,” the boxes evoke the memories associated with the items contained within, while also containing parallels with, or expressing reverence for, other art forms, such as theater, ballet, and film.
Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s “readymades,” Cornell elevated the found object to the center of his oeuvre and embodied a new paradigm of the artist as collector and archivist. Often purchased on Cornell’s frequent visits to New York secondhand shops or cut out from magazines, these objects comprise the primary materials of his art; they not only inhabit Cornell’s shadow boxes, they are also key to other aspects of his artistic practice, such as his famous “dossiers,” which were organized repositories of visual-documentary source material collected by the artist.
Although he was never officially part of the Surrealist movement and came to dismiss the Surrealist label in relation to his own work, Surrealism was a major influence on Cornell, most notably inspiring his embrace of unexpected juxtapositions. Rejecting Surrealism’s violent and erotic aspects, Cornell preferred instead what he described as the “white magic” side of Surrealism embodied by Max Ernst. Cornell played a major role in America Surrealism; in 1939, his art was famously described by Salvador Dalí as “the only truly Surrealist work to be found in America.”
Cornell has been a big inspiration in the making of my own work. The content isn’t quite what drew me to his work but the style. I’m fascinated by the layering and the 3 dimensionness of his work. I also like the idea of Cornell creating his own ‘magical’ world. I am exploring a similar concept in my own work, apart from mine is less than ‘magical’.
This is a visual representation of how bpd feels (in my opinion). The drawing is of one soul. There are three different personalities struggling to coexist; and the faces floating around them represent the extreme emotions.
I think the drawing is successful, the charcoal and the bold style makes it very expressive. The next step is to translate this into shadow box form.
I have chosen to focus on borderline personality disorder as I feel I could get more out of exploring just one mental illness. It is also an illness I have personal experience with and it’ll be easier to portray things I have experienced.
Borderline personality disorder(BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), is a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by unstable relationships with other people, unstable sense of self and unstable emotions.
I have been inspired by the work of Gerrit Schouten. I have looked into the art of shadow boxing and think it’s a great medium. My previous attempts in this style have been mystical creatures (and a ship), and although I enjoyed making them- I didn’t feel a connection with the subject matter.
Therefore I’m steering back towards mental health stuff using this new medium.
Rachel Gibson 