Abi Ransley is a young emerging artist portraying lived experiences of mental il-health. Often difficult to understand and in turn difficult for the protagonist to express, the feelings of suffering can sometimes be catapulted into the world with vain hope someone will comprehend; empathy being greater when we can relate our own narratives. In Ransley’s work an insight is vented and as an audience we no longer have to imagine but participate with visceral response.
Dialogue between editor Jessie Cunningham-Reid and Ransley
“what I’m working on right now is a trio set of artworks.
This piece will be three panels of wood, spray painted
black, with graffitied words associated with mental
health. Three large poster sized images will be on
each panel, the first image will be happy and the
second showing an individual slowly developing a
mental illness and the third being the individual
traumatised by the mental illness. Each panel will be
‘framed’ with barbed wire to suggest the idea of being
trapped inside your own mind while suffering a
mental illness. The graffiti element will provide a
thought of how a community/the public perceive
mental health and how they deal with it.”
