Melancholia

• Photographer
  Taygan Bassi

This project exposes my subjective experiences dealing with depression and detachment from self/reality. By using self-portraiture and water/distortion as methods, my work steps away from the typical dark imagery surrounding depression and instead investigates isolation and the melancholy of loss of self. This series questions what is deemed “normal” behaviour, and why even the slightest deviation from this socially constructed view is defined as abnormal, challenging the stigma around mental health by encouraging the viewer to look beyond the surface of what it is believe to be real.

Taygan Bassi is a Melbourne based mixed media artist currently engaged in her Honours at the RMIT School of Art. Originally trained as a commercial photographer, she uses these techniques in her contemporary mixed media artistic work to explore the concepts of mental health and identity within the reality of societal norms.