In 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, in which a woman suffering from a “temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency” is locked in the attic of a country home by her husband for a "rest cure". In the end, the narrator of the story is driven to psychosis by the isolation and lack of stimulation from her treatment, and by the wallpaper of her attic room.
The images, video, and immersive virtual spaces that make up my collection titled The Yellow Wallpaper depict a variety of spaces in a 3D model of a contemporary psychiatric hospital, created in Google Sketchup and covered with the aforementioned wallpaper. The work is a comment on the paternalistic nature of our contemporary mental health system, and is a part of my ongoing exploration of the effect of the treatment environment on recovery from mental and physical illness.
Clockwise from top left: Exit, Bedroom, Floor, and Hallway - archival inkjet prints, 60x40", editions of 3 plus 1 AP.
The Yellow Wallpaper, 2018, 4 minute, 2 channel loop, dimensions vary
Installation at Open World, Arlington Arts Center, 2018, 1 minute excerpt
Link to immersive view of Bedroom space, best viewed using Google Cardboard viewer
Link to immersive view of Hallway space, best viewed using Google Cardboard viewer