Inspiration from mental health patients

MARK DWYER

New York-based Venezuelan artist Javier Tellez is in the region laying the foundations for a project that will open in March. Tellez in this year's Govett-Brewster International Artist in Residence.

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Venezuelan artist Javier Tellez is currently checking out Taranaki for a project that will open later this year.

For the past week, Tellez has been scouring the region and talking to plenty of people for a work that's yet to take shape, but will rely on the feedback he's getting.

Like much of his contemporary works before, the New York-based artist will gather some of his inspiration from people living with mental illness.

Tellez is the 2009 Govett-Brewster Art Gallery International Artist in Residence and will hold an exhibition at the gallery and present a One Day Sculpture project in March.

His contemporary projects have often involved working in collaboration with mental health patients, or people living at the margins of society, who are then invited to contribute.

Much of his research has been done in mental health institutions.

He says the material behind those projects comes from his childhood.

"Both my parents were psychiatrists and we had a private library with 20,000 books.

"My father would conduct therapy with his patients and I would be around and I would visit him at the hospital where he worked," Tellez said.

He says no matter who, everyone was different.

Since being in Taranaki, Tellez has been talking with mental health providers and clients and says he's been impressed with this country's community-based approach to mental health care.

"I'm meeting with some of the clients at Taranaki Base Hospital and my work depends on the feedback I get from them and others. When I work with mental health patients I do have an idea that I bring to the table, but those initial ideas can change."

Tellez has exhibited widely internationally and his work has been included in exhibitions of major institutions including the InSite 05, Queens Museum of Art, MoMA, ZKM, Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, as well as biennales such as Moscow Biennale, Kwangju Biennale, Venice Biennale, Yokohama Triennale, Biennale of Sydney and Manifesta.

He will speak at the Govett-Brewster gallery tonight at 6pm.

- © Fairfax NZ News