LandEscape Art Review Special Issue | Page 70

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Land scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Karol Kochanowski
idea in my past projects “# SELFIE _ SHOW-OFF ” and its follow up “ U R Not Invited ”. It took me some time to read a meaning of paintings I ’ ve made for both shows . I wanted to talk about the power of mass media ; authenticity of information we get from it , how easy is to create your own reality with social media tools and to control other ’ s opinion . Instead , what I saw in my abstract paintings was fear and lack of hope . Part of my real , inner Nature was unveiled , constantly returning depression and growing anxiety inside of me , these were dictating to me the creative process . I discovered , that all this time under layers of doubts and dilemmas of socio political situation of the World and auto destructive nature of human I was dealing with my own illness . Following these reflections I came out with concept for my next exhibition “ therapy ”. My aim was to continue developing the subject of mental illness being linked to artist ’ s creativity .
The name “ therapy ” came from the belief that the actual practice of painting is one of the ways of understanding and recovering from mental illness and is in itself a form of therapy . By setting up this project in a public space I wanted to raise awareness of the invisible character of mental illness , which brings feelings of alienation and lack of understanding from the society .