Why artist Marni Kotak is going off her meds in public view
Marni Kotak on 'Mad Meds' and how she wants to shift the way we approach mental health.
Artist Marni Kotak joins guest host Stephen Quinn to talk about her latest show Mad Meds. Kotak -- who is best known for giving birth to her son as a live piece of performance art -- is now exploring society's dependency on prescription medications by going off her anti-psychotic medication in a gallery setting.
Kotak speaks about her experience being admitted with post-partum depression, the ways people are reacting to the show, and how she hopes to change the conversation about mental health.
The medicalization of human existence?
Before Kotak was diagnosed with postpartum depression, she thought she would simply pick up a prescription and go home. Kotak ended up being admitted into a psych ward and put on anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, and anti-psychotic medication.
"Though I definitely needed some help and I don't regret having reached out for it at the time, it wasn't really the best experience for me," Kotak tells Stephen.
- Microscope Gallery: Mad Meds by Marni Kotak
- Related: Artist Marni Kotak on giving birth in a gallery
Kotak says the gallery feels better for her mental health than the ward did, but that doesn't mean getting off her regimen of pills is any easier.
"It's very easy to get on this medication and it's hard to get off of it," Kotak says.
"Our society has created this kind of medicalization of human existence where you feel a pain, or you have a bad thought - you immediately go to a pill."
Installation not intended as a spectacle
While there are concerns that Mad Meds may increase the stigma surrounding mental illness by making a curiosity out of it, or that it may be taken as a form of entertainment, Kotak says her intent is in fact the opposite.
"I'm not creating some kind of spectacle, I'm actually calm, and centred, and I'm trying to change people's perceptions about what they expect when they hear that somebody has a mental illness," she says, adding that many people sit down to share their own experiences with medication.
She also responds to critics who say others might be inspired to go off their medication without proper supervision or in a way that could be detrimental.
Hear the full interview by clicking on the listen button above
Marni Kotak says that her customized space in the gallery feels a lot safer, a lot better for her mental health, than being in a psych ward of a hospital. (Marni Kotak/Microscope Gallery)