Today the word "asylum," refers to a type of protection granted by one country to an individual persecuted by their own country. But an earlier meaning, long outdated, refers to the confinement of men, women and children identified as mentally ill or “insane.”
This series, "Unearthing an Insane Past," explores the tragedy of a bygone era’s incarceration of a marginalized population who were deemed outside the social norms and the impact on both the staff and inmates. The elderly, alcoholics, immigrants who could not speak English, the handicapped and those who suffered from epilepsy are some illustrations of people so warehoused.
Growing up in a family of medical professionals, I witnessed the challenges of tending to the sick and dying. This project is my way to honor those institutionalized and the overworked medical personnel.
I manually merge vintage imagery with my own photographs of an abandoned mental hospital. The mixed media incorporates tearing, taping, stitching and other techniques to combine and remix my black and white photographs with historic pictures from the internet. These deconstructive techniques echo the lives and families torn apart by incarcerations. I create fragmented compositions exploring stories that emerged while researching the history of our country’s many such institutions.
My goal is to stimulate conversation about our complicated past of insane asylums before these haunting tales are buried in an unmarked grave.
