I just wanted to go and come back, but I couldn’t.
I just wanted to tell everyone, but I couldn’t.
I just wanted to ignore it, but it didn’t let me.
Now it stays with me, hiding into the corners.
There always has been an immense focus on physical well-being on one hand, while on the other, ignorance and neglect when it comes to mental and emotional health. The prejudice one witness when they decide to talk about going to therapy or simply mention their struggles for the same. I began to explore the idea of mental health and anxiety since the start of my masters in Ambedkar University,New Delhi. I began to question this after my anxieties reappeared when I was failing to cope up with my masters and considered dropping out. Therefore, I started my work based on the questions of whether one’s work could become a place of healing for the self, a safe space to explore and question, what it means to be depressed or anxious. I felt that there was a need to make the viewer think, why we have failed as a society to understand the very basic needs of our body and to also perhaps raise the curiosity of the onlooker, that why is the word ‘mental health’ still the reason for gasps and ashamed nods? The works were not only an effort to change how one views the taboo around mental illness but how can one also create a sense of community while talking about it.
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My work has evolved through different semesters of my masters, this website being the fourth act in the series. My previous works could be accessed through this.
The bedroom in the wonderland is a virtual bedroom space. It’s coming into existence is totally circumstantial. The current global pandemic situation led to rethinking and reshaping of initial ideas of a physical exhibition and with the limited resources, a website was formed to showcase and discuss our ideas.It was quite relevant at this point to explore, analyse and discuss about mental health considering the current crisis situations.‘The bedroom in the wonderland’ becomes a space where the viewer can discover and think about the idea of mental health in an everyday context. This virtual space is framed as a safe space of bedroom where the secrets can be hidden and one can be truly oneself and at the same time create a dialogue on mental health.The idea of an interactive room is very parallel to how the internet works as a massive room which can accommodate very different ideas and talks.
The various secrets that are camouflaged in the virtual room, attempts to raise a dialogue on different things from making choices, the everyday sufferings, body dysmorphia, to the idea of healing and relaxation. How one discovers the various paths, links and interlinks brings forth how life is shaped (social, psychological, personal as well as collective). The bedroom and the safe space becomes especially important during the current times, where one is confined to their room and who gets this privilege and at the same time how the internet becomes the most important tool of communication.