The Geelong community is being invited to immerse itself in the minds of individuals living with mental illness and neurodivergence during a special group exhibition.
Fyansford Paper Mill will host Together We Are Antifragile exhibition from Saturday 11 October to Saturday 18 October from 10am to 4pm, with a special opening night at 6.30pm on Friday 10 October.
Antifragile founder Clare Johnston said everyone was welcome to come along to the free exhibition and open their hearts to the moving stories shared by the mental health art collective’s members.
“It’s not just art on a wall, it is the story and depth in them, and it’s the layers that we put in this to open the conversation and invite people to come and talk with us,” she said.
“Many of us live with spicy brains, but we aren’t failures as humans; we just live with fundamentally different brains, and that means we work and communicate differently.
“In talking about our disabilities like we have, we live with what is an invisible disability, and words often fail us, but art has the beautiful ability to communicate what can never be said.”
Ms Johnston said she had been living with complex mental illness since she was 13 and that no one could understand someone else’s perspective without some contact to develop empathy.
“If it (viewing the exhibition) is hard, if it does hit close to home, if you see yourself in the drawings or the paintings or whatever, then come talk to us as we’re here to help and support each other,” she said.
The exhibition is free, but bookings are essential, visit givenow.com.au/event/210 for more information and to secure tickets.
