In the Mind

Exhibition Dates

February 7th 2019 - April 10th 2019

In the Mind is an illustration exhibition exploring mental health by artists Elsbeth van der Poel and Kathryn Watson. Through their unique drawing styles each artist has created a fantastical world of monsters, friends, worries and hope based on their own lived experience.

Elsbeth’s comic project Worryboy follows Jonah, a young boy whose inner turmoil begins to physically expand his head with his fears and troubles. Alongside friends Jamila and Dex they discover the eccentric Professor Hakim who discovers Jonah’s thoughts and feelings have turned into actual people living in his head. Now Jonah will have to travel inside his own head to set things straight and face his biggest fears.

Kathryn Watson, a doctor and visual artist recently turned to illustrating her experiences of mental illness in her works My Illustrated Mind. This collection of illustrations describes a parallel world which centres around little Kathryn’s inner vulnerable child. Surrounding her are various monsters each representing a distinct and separate emotional state. Over time, the relationship between little self and each monster changes and evolves, as is simultaneously mirrored in her own life.

Both artists combine their lived experience of depression, anxiety and Borderline Personality Disorder to carve out dreamlike realities that both delve into darkness and pull us back into the light through deeply personal works that provoke existential questions around illness, recovery and resilience.