halla birgisdóttir - myndskáld//pictorial storyteller
Did I notice it then or did I notice it afterwards?
2013 - Pencil drawings on paper, large pencil drawing and texts on the wall and a dress.
About the work: Did I notice it then or did I notice it afterwards? is based on the artist's own experience of losing control of reality and going into psychosis. The title of the work reflects the existence of the moment when a mental patient or his or her relatives realize that the illness is present.
"Mental health problems are something that people usually confine to their homes. If, for example, they were a dress, then they were a nightgown that people wore only under other clothes and preferably not when guests come to visit. Sometimes the disease grows in such a way that it can no longer be hidden. Is it better to hide it anyway? "
- halla birgisdóttir, myndskáld
The work was accompanied by a performance where the artist, wearing the dress, wrote texts directly on the wall next to the drawings. The performance ended with her taking off the dress and leaving it behind.