Brad Necyk, Alberta #3 (film still), courtesy of the artist.
Insight to Mood Disorders and Bipolar
Artist Brad Necyk, PhD, MFA
Curator Dick Averns, MFA
Dr Scott Patten, PhD, specialist in mood disorders, Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary
This free event accompanies our fall exhibition, Perspectives From Within, exploring mental health from the perspective of lived experience.
Join artist Brad Necyk for a screening of his autobiographical film Alberta #3, and learn more about his artwork and research spanning psychiatry and art. This event will be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about how mental health is impacted by mood disorders, particularly Bipolar Affective Disorders, and how art can give a better understanding of these conditions.
The evening will be hosted by curator Dick Averns, commencing with an overview to the artworks in Perspectives From Within, and concluding with a question and answer session featuring Dr Scott Patten, a specialist in mood disorders, Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary. All persons are welcome including those seeking help, family members, artists and anyone practising in related fields.
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Doors + Exhibition Preview: 6pm
Talk: 7pm – 8:30pm
Contemporary Calgary, Auditorium
Free with registration.
This is an in-person program. Masks are mandatory, and physical distancing will be maintained in seating arrangements. Contemporary Calgary requires visitors ages 12 and older to provide proof of vaccination, documentation of medical exemption, or a negative PCR or rapid test within the last 72 hours in order to enter the gallery.
Speaking on his work Brad says Alberta #3 is a meditation on family, heredity, madness, and time. The story is a first-person, non-linear account of a manic episode I lived in 2017 and the events surrounding it. I wrote this as part of my healing journey: a journey I am still on. I wrote it for my family, my caregivers, and I wrote it for the manic patients I healed with at the Centre for Addiction Health in Toronto.
I am also looking forward to meeting all the people just beginning their journey with bipolar or other mental health conditions, to let them know they are not alone. I believe art creates space to experience others' perspectives, and that is what I would like to share.”
About the Artist, Brad Necyk (he/him)
Brad Necyk is a Canadian visual artist, filmmaker, and writer with a Ph.D. in Psychiatry whose practice focuses on mental illness, empathy, consciousness, and flourishing. His doctoral research was awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal and will be published as a book of narrative poetry. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Fellow in York University's Cinema & Media Arts department and a Research Associate in the Film & Digital Media department at the University of California Santa Cruz. His current research is creating virtual reality films on addiction, organ transplantation, and medical assistance in dying.