Sculptural Text: Voice

"Voice" is a word that I find particularly relevant to my personal memory. It is from a dual memoir named Divided Minds written by two identical twins. The older suffers from schizophrenia with a early onset in adolescence whereas the younger becomes a psychiatrist. The book gives a unique first-handed account of this severe form of mental disorder and inspired me to narrow down my research concentration to psychopathology and affectivity as an undergraduate. Hearing talking voices, or hallucination (perceiving sounds without the presence of physical auditory stimuli) is one of the most typical symptoms that characterize schizophrenia and the twins mentioned multiple times in the book how hallucination affects their life and interpersonal relationships.

This piece of sculptural text is made up of table salt and chia seeds. The combination of these two materials is intended to create a sense of conflict since seeds are usually associated with growth, vitality and positivity whereas excess salt is often considered a major impediment to germination. I used way more salt than chia seeds so that salt dominates the piece and chia seeds only constitute a small portion of the background. This is not only to balance the black and white in the whole piece, but also to emphasize how often schizophrenic patients struggle to tell what is real verus what is not. Ever since the onset of the first breakout, they live in a nebula mixed of reality and hallucination. Voice is such a commonly used means of expression and communication in our daily life. However, hearing voices may be the worst nightmare for people with schizophrenia because it blurs the boundary of reality and imagination.