The artist Josephine King (b.1965) has been a life-long sufferer of bipolar disorder, sometimes called manic-depressive disorder.
Put simply, the illness causes changes in mood and energy levels often rendering the sufferer unable to function. Bipolar disorder symptoms can lead to difficulties in maintaining relationships, under achievement at school or work, or even suicide.
Josephine King expresses the trauma of her extreme bipolar symptoms through her self-portraits displayed in an exhibition entitled Life So Far, at the Riflemaker gallery from 13th September 2010.
Life So Far – About the Exhibition
The exhibition, co-curated by Adrian Dannatt, Virginia Damtsa and Tot Taylor, features eighty full-length coloured ink portraits, created during the last five years. King uses inks because paint pigments are not strong enough to express her moods.
King's subject matter is drawn from her personal life and experiences of manic-depressive illness, including drug abuse, depression and unstable relationships. She chooses strong, intense colours: blood reds, deep yellows and purples, and a lot of black, portraying herself with strong dark colours especially around the eyes. In some paintings she holds a knife, a book, a tiger, a tube of paint, or a handful of pills.
King's paintings reflect her interests in a variety of art forms, ranging from Victoriana and Art Nouveau, to haute couture and classical Indian portraiture, as well as the decorative arts.
The portraits are framed by texts showing the confusion and loneliness caused by bipolar disorder. For example, Suicide Ultimately (2007), tells the viewer that “Manic depression paralyses my mind. Painting and medication give release.”
Josephine King – About the Artist
Josephine King's bipolar disorder was not actually diagnosed until 1999, although she has suffered from it throughout her life, at times so severely that she has attempted suicide.
King's mother took Josephine, and her brother, to live in Amsterdam where, at the age of ten, and speaking no Dutch, Josephine attended a local school. From the age of thirteen she studied at the Rudolf Steiner School in Amsterdam.
After applying to, and being rejected by, Saint Martin's art school, King was accepted by Amsterdam's Rietveld Academie where she studied for five years. She also studied at the École National Supérieure Des Arts Décoratifs, and at AR.CO, an independent school of art located in Lisbon.
In the early part of her career King created beautiful ceramics which have been shown at Lisbon's Gallery Ratton (African Blues, 1994, and Equus, 1999), and at the Dutch Tile Museum, Nederlanse Tegelmuseum in Otterlo (Portuguese Diary, 1998).
King was artist-in-residence at the Azulejos Museum of Tiles from 1993-95 and at the Zoological Museum in Amsterdam from 1997-98.
Life So Far – Exhibition Catalogue
The Riflemaker exhibition catalogue features essays by the artist, and Adrian Dannatt, co-curator of the show. Riflemaker have produced 1,000 copies of the book, available at £10.00 per copy.
Life So Far will be on show from 13th September to 30th October 2010 at Riflemaker, 79 Beak Street, London W1.
Further information regarding both exhibition, and catalogue, can be obtained from Riflemaker or by telephoning: +44 (0) 20 7439 0000.
Frances Spiegel - Frances Spiegel, B.A. Hons. (Open)., Dip.Eur.Hum., read Art History/European Modern History at the Open University.
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