SALA 2023

The Asylum Gene

A mixed media exhibition by Kendrea Rhodes
_{charcoal, pencil, ink, watercolour, digital art, photography, oil paint}

What is madness? How can creative practices affect social perceptions of insanity? Can personal stories of madness affect social change in our culture?

The Asylum Gene SALA 2023 exhibition is a study in the influence of art, storytelling, and creative practices on contemporary thoughts about madness. Themes of institutionalization and trauma weave throughout this exhibition. The Asylum Gene, Faces of Madness and Take These Pills refer specifically to the institutionalization and medicalization of madness. The Trauma Bodies series studies physical responses to situations of madness such as institutionalization, bushfires, pandemic lock-down, and climate change—where the bodies of trauma are human, animal, plant and celestial (earth).