JANET BROOKS, JOSHUA RAFFELL 'You are the Dance'

About

Brooks and Raffell via dyslexic contortion explore memory and its impact upon self-identity. Memories are blurred, the work layered with meaning, drawing on Traveller and Romany influences, using traditional methods to far from traditional ends. To 'draw the viewer in with colour and shock with the difficult imagery,’ as Roma artist Delaine La Bas says,

"Our work picks up on naïve styles, folk art and outsider art. We met at art school and began to develop our collaborative approaches from there. We were Insiders only by default, and felt we were never completely truly inside.

Our parallel memories act as a counterpoint, allowing us to reach deeper into their power and how they affect mental health. Memories shared of both growing up with mothers with bipolar disorder. Our work is a vision from the survivor's point of view, non-judgmental, healing and empathetic.

Using our own experiences of a memory, warped by time, the art transcends the autobiographical to a state of otherness. We know the reality, but a veil is drawn over the whole".