Melancholia Menage, 2012

Series of 5 inkjet prints
29 x 29 cm each

This body of work Melancholia Menage looks at the effect of mental illness and how it is perceived in a contemporary western society, particularly in relation to women who are affected by such disorders. Basing the work off a domestic setting with multiple sufferers under the same roof these photographs illustrate a brokenness, and demonstrate the back and forth between states. A mixture between documentary and staged photography this work documents cups owned, broken and kept by members of one family, which contains three women living with mental illness. The titles correspond to the dates the objects were broken. Ideas about fragility and femininity are highlighted, and questions are posed about the process of repair.