An exhibition featuring the work of former Priestley student Pete Regan is currently being staged at the Warrington Museum and Art Gallery.
‘From the Depths’ was inspired by Pete’s experiences of learning to live with depression and features art, film and photography.
You can watch a time lapse video of the exhibition being set up here > http://bit.ly/1C97rVq or read more about the exhibition in Pete’s words below..
I was diagnosed with Cyclothymia (considered to be a milder form of Bipolar Disorder) in my early twenties. It was a dark point in my life. I was struggling, spending months in bed without leaving the house, completely isolated from society.
Thankfully from the depths of depression, I was given a camera.
The camera has over the years transformed my life. In this project I explore how the arts can help people who are suffering, as I was. Beauty can be found in the smallest of things and I attribute the camera for seeing beauty and purpose in life again.
The exhibition contains images that have been taken since I first picked up a camera, all from different points in my life but all with a common theme of atmosphere.
Life has moments of serenity, of beauty, of calm before the storm. It is these moments we hold onto, when things become difficult, when every day becomes a battle, when life deals brutal blows. My work is about capturing the beauty and brutality of life in equal measure. It doesn’t shy away from capturing loneliness or depression. It hints at the fact there is more, it accentuates moods, by honing in on details that would escape everyday attention.
Accompanying the images with textured sound, the viewer is given free rein to imbue the work with their own meaning. The projections of my childhood don’t account for the whole picture but give fragmentary glimpses into memory. By looking at fleeting apparitions of the open road, the viewer is invited to interpret their own journey. The cyclical projection of the two hour slide-show interspersed with different sound throughout, acknowledges the ups and downs of life, the ebbing and flowing of our moods, the jarring effect this can have.
The cyclical aspect of our lives preoccupies me. In this way all emotions are finite and have their season. Just as weather changes, so do we. So do our moods. There is chaos in life. There can be acceptance of it, and at the end of that hope. It doesn’t mean the chaos or the darkness won’t re-appear again, but that there is movement, there is change, there is fluidity to life.
I work for an Arts for Health scheme and every day I see how art has the capacity to improve people’s lives. I see art as transformative, comforting, even healing. This exhibition seeks to provide a space to reflect upon our lives, a place to slow down and seek solace.
