The Piece of Mind exhibition gives students a space to make visible the invisible phenomenon of mental health. The exhibition, launching McGill University’s Mental Health Awareness Week, was host to a variety of student-made works, which expressed their conception of and relationship to mental health. After visiting the Piece of Mind exhibition in Vancouver, organizer Joy Chang, joined by Helen Thompson, sought to activate the rich, creative potential for self-expression on the topic of mental health at McGill by asking students: “What does psychological health mean to you?” The question of psychological health served as a starting point for exploring and prompting the diverse subjectivities of the student artists, whose collective body of work shows a step towards openly dialoging the different ways in which mental health is experienced and appreciated on campus.

Shades of Blue - Queenie Wong

For the diversity of its works, the exhibition shows a common striving to identify a subjective meaning of mental health through a range of artistic mediums and content. The artworks ranged from 2D to 3D, including mediums from paint to embroidery. While some artists deploy content of peaceful scenes of nature to evoke a desirable state of mind, some deploy dark, abstract brush strokes, which evoke mental conditions such as depression and anxiety. In “Psychosis”, Queenie Wong dresses a canvas in shades and splatters of blue paint with a vaguely outlined figure that fades into the background. Her artistic statement discloses:

“Because every breath, despite its heaviness, is meaningful

That life goes on

And everything will be okay.”

Don’t Let Me Crumble - Zaliqa Rosli

In her mixed media piece, Don’t Let Me Crumble, Zaliqa Rosli depicts a meditative, female figure, which conveys a desired mental state of control and stability expressed in her artist’s statement:

“Having psychological health means being aware and in control. Having psychological health means knowing there will be better days. Even with everything around you crumbling away, you find the strength to lift yourself. You have stability. You don’t get lost in the chaos. Having psychological health means feeling an equilibrium within you, and lined around you. You are in a bubble, but you don’t close yourself to the world. Your environment likes to play with psychological health. But when play gets rough, who will gain the upper hand? Having psychological health means you like the person you are. You are confident. You are happy. You have people in your life who make sure of that. They don’t let you fragment into bits and pieces. You learn from your past experiences and look forward to your future.”

In exhibiting a range of mental states, Piece of Mind makes clear that mental health is more than a matter of disorder but instead, a matter of self-love, -care, and –compassion. On the subject of stigma, Joy states: “We don’t want to limit the works to the stigma of associating mental health to a problem. We want to get people to talk about it so there’s less stigma about it.” Indeed, making and exhibiting art on the topic of mental heath is among the first productive steps in bringing visibility to this largely invisible phenomenon, while showing how it effects everybody to varying degrees. Channeling this concern into art further serves as an extension of the philosophy of art therapy. As Helen states, “Art therapy is really helpful – the action of pushing paint around on a canvas is really relaxing.”

Framing Piece of Mind around the topic of “mental health” instead of “mental disorder” has the effect of showing how mental health affects everybody, relieving it of its narrow medical stigma. This is the leading strength of the exhibition: making mental health matter to all and so, opening the floor to a dialogue, which has been long held down - stigmatized - and letting the visuals do the talking.

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“Whether it was paintings or pictures, stories or words, movies or music, I was left lingering for more. The rawest forms of emotions could be felt through the refreshing beauty of art. There is no right or wrong interpretation of the final product. Art does not aim to judge. Rather, it aims to inspire by bringing to life these pieces in your mind.”

– Rukshana Hassanali, Founder of POM