Research – Kristianne Drake

Kristianne Drake produced two projects, ‘You Were Here’ and ‘Sometimes Things Just Disappear’ both focusing on mental health.

Her first project, ‘You Were Here’ focuses on OCD, which Drake produced when she first was diagnosed with the illness. She observed the tea bags left on the side by her family over time. When talking about the project Kristianne Drake states ‘At first when I noticed the piles of tea bags I just got angry, but left them there to see how long it would be before they got cleared away, I guess it became a game that only I knew I was playing. This is one of the manifestations of my mental health illness, I only see the problems that affect me and they become overwhelming and over exaggerated: some might say selfish.’

For me the repetition of creating a series of photographs capturing the same object becomes incredibly interesting especially when relating it to mental health. Because mental health doesn’t just disappear, for me projects like this showing the same object over a period of time highlights the intensity of suffering with a mental illness.

Kristannes Project ‘Sometimes Things Just Disappear’ focuses purely on her bedroom, a place where she found herself spending more and more time. The photographs are paired with conversations reordered with a family member. ‘In these recordings they discussed life changing decisions, living with choices we make and how we affect other people. Each photograph is hand printed.’ – Fragmentary.com.

In my previous work I have experimented with text being paired with photos, often representing the feelings associated with social anxiety. I find the idea of recording conversations like Kristanne Drake has done interesting, rather than trying to create my own. It gives a much more real representation of what it is like to suffer with a mental illness.