Asylum

"Veni Vedi Vici" / Kristy Darnell Battani / Encaustic on paper

 Asylum.

Does the word make you uneasy? Cause you to giggle? Invoke images of Nurse Ratched? A straight jacket? Electro-shock treatment?

By definition, asylum is simply a place offering solace, peace or refuge. Add hundreds of acres of whispering pine trees, grazing dairy cows, reflecting ponds, meandering trails and cool summer breezes blowing off Lake Michigan, it could be a welcome vacation. And so it was for me.

"Another Day" / Kristy Darnell Battani / Encaustic on paper

Admittedly, the Northern Michigan Asylum in Traverse City no longer functions as a hospital but rather is a high-design, eco-modern, residential community. For two weeks I escaped the Texas summer heat and worked while living in the former asylum. My life was simple. All my basic needs (good coffee, good wine, good chocolate and place to walk and bike) were simply laid before me each day. The scale of the structure itself intrigued me—brick and plaster walls two feet thick, massively wide hallways, and thirteen-foot ceilings with sunlight flooding in through windows of virtually the same height.

I worked each day on my sunny veranda, but at night, when the shadows filled the wide hallways, I couldn’t prevent my mind from wandering, wondering at the loneliness, frustration, despair, confusion, or anger the original residents must have felt. The hallways were silent, but my mind allowed the possibility of a cry, a scream, or a moan. What happened in the shadows at the end of the hallway? Was there a faint light in the transom window above the metal door? What really happened in the therapy rooms? 

"Light in Darkness" / Kristy Darnell Battani / Encaustic on paper

And then the jackhammers started.

"Lucidity" / Kristy Darnell Battani / Encaustic on paper

On the second morning and throughout the rest of my stay a construction crew arrived with their jackhammer to pound a relentless beat for eight hours directly below my workspace. At first I thought it was a small price to pay for living in such luxury. But by the third day my work slowed. I was irritable. The noise drowned my thoughts. Nothing I created made any sense. I felt…crazy. And that was the begining of the Asylum project.

I spent many hours researching the history of this asylum and similar other institutions built during the late nineteenth century. I explored every part of the grounds, both the renovated and decaying structures. I read stories and flipped through photos of those who had lived, worked or been touched by the institution. I gave shape, color and texture to my own experience with these things. It culminated in the works that are part of this series on collage on paper. 

"Hanging Optimism" / Kristy Darnell Battani / Encaustic on paper