Short film (2:58 minutes in length) comprising 25 still images, 2 A.I. GANS generated from 464 self portraits & 621 landscape photographs. Created in the month of November, 2021.

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Statement from the artist:

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'Over the course of the last two years, I have often contemplated the concept of an artistic series revolving around my experiences of psychosis, dissociation and depersonalisation. Fascinated by Carl Jung's (1975-1961) philosophy of the 'Collective Unconscious' and the exploration of the unconscious mind through art, in the early months of 2021 I began to research psychoanalysis, surrealism, and among photographers such as Vincent Serbin, Man Ray, and Fiona Lark, artists in which these concepts resonated. Initially, I undertook this body of work as a photographic series - a physical piece composed in three separate panels each in accordance with its respective theme, Psychosis, Vision, and Mind. However, it soon became apparent to me that this method of illustration could not reflect the complex nature of the work itself - the raw sensation of detachment, of disillusion, and of psychosis. 

After viewing William Kentridge’s short animated film, ‘Pain and Sympathy (2010)’, a facile yet deeply complex depiction of death and apartheid, I immediately envisioned what would later become ‘Psychosis, Vision, Mind’, a perpetual juxtaposition of imagery, mutation and transition (metamorphosis). In the utilisation of photography, a medium inherently used in illustrating the nature of reality, the film embodies both the material world and the nature of individual perception - each divergent visions of reality. The evolution from the material world to individual perception can be viewed within three separate stages of the film (each proceeding one another with a brief transition into black). 

The first stage, 'Pre-Psychosis' (photographs 1-7, 00:00-00:31), illustrates material or 'natural' subject matter in the form of film stills (i.e, self portraiture, imagery of landscapes, flowers).

The second stage, 'Post psychosis' (photographs 8-18, 00:35-01:35), illustrates the abstraction, fragmentation and distortion of previously represented subject matters via physical & digital manipulation (i.e, digital implant of fog - seconds 00:39-00:54, translating self portraits into etchings - photographs 10-14, seconds 00:55-01:10, destruction of printed flower - photographs 15 - 18, seconds 01:22-01:35).

The third stage, 'Existentialism' (photographs 19-23, 01:36-02:57), illustrates the complete and gross dissociation from any known or recognisable material matter via the utilisation of AI generated GANS (resulting from a collection of 464 self portraits & 621 landscape photographs).                        

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Throughout the film, several technical elements are utilised to further establish an atmosphere of dream-state; the use of monochromatic filter; omnipresent 'mist' in the back/foreground; long exposures + neutral density filter; double exposure'.