New exhibit explores the intersection of art, poetry and mental health
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A new exhibit at Rochester's Chateau Theatre combines art and poetry in ways that reflect personal and collective experiences of mental illness.
Rochester poet laureate and high school English teacher Jean Prokott organized the event, which is called Trust the Hours.
She said writing poetry has helped her get through some of her most difficult moments.
"Creating work knowing like this is to reflect what I'm going through right now...it's a way to unpack what's happening inside of you that you can't always express,” she said.
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Prokott used grant money from the Academy of American Poets to commission poems, paintings and sculpture from writers and artists from the Rochester area.
Prokott said all these pieces reflect real life experiences many people will find prolific and familiar.
"I think when people come to the show, they're going to see themselves or they're going to see someone else in the work,” she said.
Nicholas Breutzman is a graphic novelist based in Rochester. His book ‘Pill Hill’ is part of the show. He said writing and drawing it required him to revisit memories of living with a spouse struggling with addiction and becoming a single parent in the process.
“Some memories are really just difficult to kind of think about especially when you're kind of getting into the kind of minute details,” he said. “It can be really kind of difficult to dig up these things. But essentially, you know, it helped me process all of this.”
Another example comes from High school senior Wanjala Carlson, who teamed up with a friend to write a poem about living with a parent who is addicted to alcohol. She said the poem tries to upend the narrative that kids of addicted parents will inevitably become addicts themselves.
“There are also just a lot of other ways that addiction shapes your life and changes it that aren’t the stereotypical ‘You'll be an addict, too,’” Carlson said.
Jessalyn Finch is among the visual artists participating in the show. Her sculpture is called ‘Eat or Be Eaten.’
It's a twisted mass of body parts constructed from small, glued pieces of cardboard and painted shades of grey. Finch said that the piece mirrors her own experience with an eating disorder.
"It is a cardboard sculpture that has some jaw bones and a torso. And it's really about this when you have an eating disorder. For me, specifically [it’s] the play between eating food and letting your body eat itself,” she said.
Finch said she is glad to see mental health getting more public attention since the pandemic. But she said there's still a stigma around struggling with things like an eating disorder. So she hopes the show prompts more candid conversations about mental health.
"If we can come back to, ‘How do we take care of ourselves?’ That's like the biggest way we can connect with each other,” she said.
Trust the Hours is on display at the Chateau Theater in Rochester through June 7 and is free to the public.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or thoughts of suicide, please know trained help is available. Call or text 988 to get connected with a counselor, or text MN to 741741
