If you’re struggling with mental health issues, it can sometimes be hard to talk about it. A new exhibit in Gaithersburg, Maryland, wants to help you do just that.
“Pull Up a Chair 2.0,” hosted by the Arts Barn’s professional art gallery, features pieces by 14 artists; each chair on display focuses on a mental health issue the artist has dealt with.
One called “Panic” by Molly McCracken has black tentacles coming from behind the backrest. Coincidentally, the chair looks not unlike the character of “Anxiety” in Disney’s “Inside Out 2,” released after the piece was commissioned.
“When I spoke to the artist about her piece, she described to me that was how she felt when anxiety would come over her at night, that it felt like something kind of creeping over her shoulders,” said curator and artist Sandra Davis.
One of Davis’ pieces is deeply personal. It’s a yellow chair with bright, texturized splotches of pinks, yellows and purples, based on a Google search of a brain scan of a manic episode.
“My spouse has dealt with some mental health issues throughout the 42 years we’ve been married,” she said. “And I can remember episodes when he would go through a manic state.”
She added, “That particular chair is a description of that sort of garish, loud, extreme feeling that a person may go through.”
The exhibit is a spinoff of an earlier project Davis curated in 2022 featuring artist-created chairs.
“We had what we call an ‘artist roundtable,’ where each of the artists came to talk about what their inspiration was, what they were feeling when they were creating the chair, and it ended up feeling very much like a group-therapy session,” she said.
She realized they were all struggling during the pandemic with big emotions, like grief, anxiety and feelings of isolation.
“We know the mental health conversation is top of mind,” Davis said. “We hear it in the news, we’re reading about it. They’re talking about it at school. But we haven’t really necessarily (felt) like it’s still a welcoming conversation.”
She said by inviting visitors to sit in the chair and have a conversation about what the artist may have been feeling, it’ll prompt visitors to have their own conversations about mental health.
The exhibit was awarded a grant by the Maryland State Arts Council and is now on view at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn Gallery though Oct. 6.
On Friday, Sept. 6, there will be a panel discussion at the gallery on art and mental health.
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