Sign For the Times

Sign for the times is a developing personal response to my own recovery from a mental health crisis. At the beginning of 2019 a series of personal battles and issues building up in my life combined with the death of a close loved one culminated in what can be only described as a complete breakdown.

In the days leading up to the breakdown, I sat devotedly at a bed offering comfort and strength to someone within the final days of their life. This was at a time where certain other personal scenarios in my life had left me struggling to tell if something was real, fake or not. I no longer believed in coincidence and I was forming unfounded links between almost everything I faced on a daily basis.

During those days I visited a church of significant meaning to my childhood, and whilst not especially religious I went there to gather thoughts and to ask for peace, for my loved one, and maybe at my expense. The rest is hard to explain but in short, my request was granted.

Diagnosed with depression and anxiety the next few months were all about recovery.

The work draws on some of my experiences as well as touching on issues found in the today's world. There is wide social and political insecurity, and an increasing desire for change, whatever the cost. What is today's hope?

The inclusion of the religious symbol is deliberately crude and imperfect, aesthetically dark with the neon reminiscent of city bars and night life that offer pleasure, escape and distraction from modern life.