Getting health down to a fine art
The Art Chemist can prescribe a cure for your ills
‘Idescribe myself as an Avon lady meets therapist meets some kind of corporate wellbeing guru.” Audrey Baldwin says her interactive performance and installation, Art Chemist, is somewhere between a pharmacy or apothecary, a therapist’s office and a directory of art.
“I came up with the idea postlockdown, in response to a sense of isolation. The idea that a connection with someone, even someone you don’t know, can be transformative.”
Art, says Audrey, is an important part of society’s wellbeing, and it can connect with, and speak to, people in a variety of ways.
“For me, I think art, creativity and connection are all important pathways to wellbeing.
“We’ve all taken a paracetamol or popped a vitamin, but other ways have been overlooked.”
Art Chemist, which will be in New Plymouth on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week, is delivered in what Audrey describes as being “a camp and playful way”, encouraging people to seek out local art.
Audrey has been hard at work creating her personal directory of artworks in New Plymouth ready to be able to prescribe them to her patients later this week.
“There is so much great art in New Plymouth. Taranaki, as a whole, has a lot, so I had to narrow it down to just New Plymouth for this, but there really is so much to be explored.”
Patients are encouraged to talk to the Art Chemist about their symptoms and feelings, and Audrey says anything goes.
“I do prefer to work with existential ailments perhaps, emotions and such, rather than more physical like a stubbed toe, but I’ll deal with whatever people bring.”
She isn’t, she stresses, a therapist or a medical practitioner, “so I do have a list of helplines and things if people are talking to me about something more serious, but the Art Chemist is there to prescribe some art in a way to help you feel better or explore your feelings”.
Ahead of the Art Chemist setting up in New Plymouth, Stratford Press editor Ilona Hanne had a consultation with her to get a prescription for the arts.
Picture, says Audrey as the Art Chemist, a welcoming space, with mink blanket-covered furniture, and relaxing aromatherapy scents in the air.
Art Chemist: So what brings you here today?
Ilona: I suppose a sense of feeling frantic, always feeling rushed and busy.
Art Chemist: And you work as a journalist, so, in the arts?
Ilona: Yes.
Art Chemist: In the creative field, people can often be spinning multiple plates, facing constant deadlines. So I want to prescribe something that helps you to breathe, to relax and to remember that while we are yoked to time, it is a social construct. Okay, so a follow-up question, do you prefer to be outside or inside? Are you often at a computer sitting inside, or do you go outside a lot?
Ilona: For work inside at a computer
a lot, but in my free time, to relax, I like to read.
Art Chemist: A lot of my prescriptions are a concoction, a cocktail or artwork perhaps. So I am doing that for you, a few things, not just one. First, something inside. This work is a fantastic large sculpture currently at Govett-Brewster. It’s by Ana Iti and is called The Woman Whose Back Was A Whetstone. That name might feel a little pointy for you, but it is really a testament to your strength and determination. In creative work, people are really strong, and I want to send a message with this sculpture, which is made of steel and stone. It links back to a Ma¯ori creation story, and I want you to think about the story as you look. It’s a celebration of your own fortitude and strength, and also a reminder that we need to put down our load sometimes to be able to keep going.
Then, as a follow-up, I want to send you to Kunming Garden in Pukekura Park. There is a pathway there, and on a nice day, I want you to take your shoes off and walk along that pebble mosaic path. It’s about grounding yourself and being contemplative. Those pebbles were each placed one at a time, with thought, and I want you to walk that path and feel them.
Then, while you are in the park, there is a sculpture in a pond I want you to see. It’s called Aotearoa and is by Michael Smither. It is four bronze clouds, painted white. It will ground you and remind you of your inner strength. The art reflects in the water, and I want you to look at those reflections and also at the clouds in the sky. What is below and what is above.
So, I am sending you on a journey, and in the order I have given you.
It’s to help you recognise and reconnect with your own inner strength, and to feel grounded, while also seeing what imagination brings.