Wood Cut-Reduction Prints

 

The wood cut series explores how this stigma is ingrained in our society. The Irish psyche is still tainted by the damage caused from the affects of incarcerating people in asylums, and the use of inhumane treatments, where people had no voice. The affect of this happening in the recent past is seeping through the generations where the fear still exists. Fear and ignorance underlie the stigma and negative attitudes towards mental illness today. In the past, people were removed from society. Now the stigma is an effective method of exclusion in the 21^st century, causing the disempowerment of a vulnerable section of society. The imagery used aims to show how people suffering from mental illness are trapped by archaic ideas and the stigma surrounding it.