Adam Daley Wilson
Fever Dream
"Species Anosognosia" is part of a series exploring ramifications of the artist’s radical view that not just individuals can be mentally ill – entire societies, nations, even our entire species can be mentally ill too. The piece creates a nexus between this idea and anosognosia – the psychiatric term describing a mentally ill person so sick they cannot see their illness. It is not refusal; it is without fault. This piece blends these ideas to posit we are together mentally ill, evidenced by our acts and beliefs, and that we know what we are doing, as we do not have anosognosia; and therefore questions of culpability and responsibility arise. These form the foreground text, while the background explores their consequences. From epiphany to completion, this work was created in minutes using oil sticks that broke many times from the force of the artist’s hand as he raced to document what, in his mind, inevitably flows from this work.
Species Anosognosia, 2019
oil stick on canvas
88.5 x 62.25 in 225 x 158.1 cm
oil stick on canvas
88.5 x 62.25 in 225 x 158.1 cm
