To mark Mental Health Awareness Week (8 -14 May 2017) we are showcasing Mime Gerrits’ My Monsters Inside, a series that tackles the stigma around mental health. Mime is a 16-year-old artist studying at the University of Creative Arts and this series was developed in response to the Dalziel Archive as part of the ‘Engraved in Time: Re-imagining the Dalziels’ project, a strand of our public and educational programme. Mime was also inspired by the Heroes or Monsters section of our online exhibition ‘Alice to Alice: Dalziel 1865 – 1871.’
Below, Mime discusses My Monsters Inside:
“Being one of many who likes to create art from personal emotions, I designed monsters to represent mental illnesses within society today. When I studied the Dalziel Brothers and their sequential Alice in Wonderland wood engravings for my project, I decided to design a fantasy world where a girl’s life problems such as depression, anxiety and anorexia become monsters that she has to defeat in order to be a healthier and happier person. These ideas for my project where inspired by myself, friends and family who struggle with problems such as these and by creating these monsters to represent these common issues I hope to spread awareness to society today.”
Images ©️ Mime Gerrits