Mental superpowers

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2018

This project comes forth out of work I made during a residency at the Kings County Hospital in New York, which I was able to do with the help of the the Beautiful Distress Foundation. During the residency I met many people in the hospital and outside of it with different mental health issues, all of whom struck me as gifted, intelligent - genius - people. I started to wonder what is the difference between being considered as “crazy” and as “brilliant” With all the people I met in and outside the psychiatric hospital I made this comic ‘Mental Superpowers’.

Vincent van Gogh, Lady Gaga, Diane Arbus, Kurt Cobain; the list of famous people with a mental illness who have gone down in history as brilliant is endless. But how is it actually determined who is labeled as ‘brilliant genius’ and who as ‘mad’? Can we also see different psychological conditions as a Superpower? Since its completion, this project has been exhibited in different spaces, such as art-related spaces but also different mental health institutions. You can order the publication here.

Previously shown at:
- Beautiful Distress House (Amsterdam), 2018
- AMC Hospital (Amsterdam), 2018
- Mentrum Psychiatric Hospital (Amsterdam), 2018