DO YOU WANNA PLAY

(click on images to see larger view)

The stigma frequently associated with mental illness and trauma and the various types of experiences of receiving treatment might leave a person feeling irretrievably "marked" or changed at a fundamental level of self. Gavin North's images are confronting in the way they suggest the oppression of the self that is experienced in trauma and abuse, and in the self identifying with the badness being done to it when it is mistreated. The Beast within (2006) is a worked-over photograph in which a long non-human tongue unfurls from a yellowing and cracked face. It poignantly speaks of an inescapable core feeling of badness, felt so strongly as to make its feeling beastly.

This ex cert was taken from the "Hide and Seek" catalogue from the exhibition of the same name. The "Hide and Seek exhibition is currently on show at the Dax Centre at the University of Melbourne and runs till the end of June.

If you would like to know more about the Dax Centre and what they do please go to:

www.daxcentre.org