Art exhibition features works depicting what mental health conditions are like

SINGAPORE - For 20 years, Madam Foo Choon Ean, 46, struggled with the combination of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression, which pushed her to quit her job as an English literature teacher when she was around 30.

After a close shave with suicide, Madam Foo decided to seek professional psychiatric help, where she met a therapist who recommended that she share her story with the Mental Health Collective (MHC), a ground-up initiative by young people that seeks to centralise advocacy efforts for mental health in Singapore.

Madam Foo's story of living with OCD - which she told in the form of a poem - has been made into an illustrated book titled Our Book Of Hope.

The book, illustrated by Miss Yang Kaiwen, 21, a student volunteer artist from MHC, is one of the artworks available for viewing at an exhibition at the National Library Building in Victoria Street, titled The Artist's Residency, organised by government feedback unit Reach and MHC.

The exhibition, which consists of seven artworks which were co-created by artist collaborators with mental health conditions and artist volunteers, is set within a reconstructed HDB flat.

Artworks inspired by different mental health disorders are situated in different parts of the makeshift flat and hope to evoke a "lived-in-experience" in viewers by inviting them to enter the figurative homes of those who live with mental disorders.

One artwork, for example, is a wall of torn-out calendar pages, each modified to emulate the time distortion experienced by those with bipolar disorder during their alternating manic and depressive periods.

On her artwork, Madam Foo said: "By engaging the senses, we hope that the universal language of art will help us better communicate our experiences to others so that they can empathise with us."

Apart from viewing the artworks, visitors can also learn more about youth perceptions on mental well-being curated from Reach's engagements with young people over the course of the year.

The findings, done in the form of an infographic and put up on the side of a wall, include how many young people believe they would be viewed negatively if their families found out that they have mental health issues.

Additionally, they cited reasons such as fear of workplace discrimination and social alienation as reasons against seeking help for their mental health issues.

Reach chairman Tan Kiat How, speaking at the launch of the exhibition on Sunday (Dec 19), stressed the importance of being aware of these mental health conditions and of empathy with those who have them.

"I encourage all firms to be aware of these issues and to actively care for employees," he said.

Mr Tan, who is Minister of State for Communications and Information, and National Development, said firms can demonstrate their care by exercising flexibility, including giving time off and allowing them to work from home if needed.

He added: "At the heart of it, it's about putting yourself in someone else's shoes and having basic empathy for them."

The exhibition is being held on the eight floor of the National Library Building and will run till Feb 14 next year.