Abstract

During the pandemic, a lot of people who I spoke to, were struggling with challenging mental health issues. One person recounted her experience of how she felt like an alien – her vision inspired me and prompted me to paint this piece. The point of view adopted is that of an alien – unfamiliar with the ways of the world and feeling uncomfortable and distant. The new-borns signify a state of naivety and innocence that is short-lived – a state where one is ‘un’feeling and oblivious to human judgement, rat-race and toxicity. The circle reflects the wholistic impression of life; the plants symbolize life and modes of intoxicated existence, like a trance – before reality jolts one back to forcibly ‘feel’. The serpent is the eye, akin to the Biblical allusion of tempting Eve to bite the apple from the forbidden tree of knowledge; here, the serpent signifies the temptation to ‘feel’ and acts as a resistance to human tendency to ‘un’feel. The shape is consciously a circle, like a circular eye - symbolic of ‘nirvana’ – a state of enlightenment in Buddhist philosophy – where souls ‘feel’ through ‘un’feeling.

Keywords

unfeeling, human judgement, Buddhist philosophy, pandemic, mental health, alien, experience

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