Approved: 01.09.2017

Jonathan Lohn

Artist, Arts development worker, Maker, Writer

Approved: 01.09.2017

I have a strong personal commitment to expose the beating heart of psychotic experience through visual and other art, using various forms 'perceptual DNA'. That is, being concerned with the fabric of media and the sourcing of perceptual material as much as the product.

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Artist Statement

I have a strong personal commitment to expose the beating heart of psychotic experience through visual and other art, using various forms 'perceptual DNA'. That is, being concerned with the fabric of media and the sourcing of perceptual material as much as the product.

See http://www.psychosis-art.com and 

https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.lohn/media_set?set=a.2461096587271606&type=3

I believe such work (perhaps ultimately not achieved by me) has huge importance to understanding of the human condition and how it related to art. The depiction of mental illness pretends but rarely presents the world through the lens of psychosis and is beset by cliches brought about by a certain degree of charlatanism in such movements as dada and Surrealism. Art uses numerous perceptual fabrics to propose diverse visions of the World, often confused with the alternative visions proposed by experience of psychosis. Such cliches and misunderstandings risk me being dismissed as another self-obsessed artist with Bipolar with no broad relevance outside the experience of the illness. This is part of the struggle and I hope I show how my work stands bestride my own mental illness (Bipolar 1 Atypical) and the relevance of art in people's lives. To this end, I have even begun the effort to break open the  structure of perception itself and have engaged with others in the formation of a real 'mental health' community and depicting the challenges we face.

 

I have not proceeded on an especially non-linear course, starting in the middle as a small child, working to a pinnacle in my professional career and having to start again in later life, finally retrieving the 'middle'.  - I look to AxisWeb to gain support for, re-order and consolidate my development and gain access to professional review and audiences


1966 - My career began at the age of 3 with my first lucid memories of trying to reconstruct Caroll's Alice from various fragments - the construct of the Rabbit Hole has always been a potent framework for inspiration. I strongly oppose the lazy notion that all artists should be trying to unlearn their way back to a childhood style. I began working with form, structures and meta-structures at an early age.


1970-90 - Psychotic Bipolar Disorder and Verbally dominant Dyslexia give me access to sensitivities and image systems, which in turn relate to transparencies in the system of objects and places which form external realities (cf. Heidegger's Dasein). Art helps me manage the illness/disability and the perceptions it produces and the  illness nourishes or provides fertile disassociation. This also helps connect the invisible with  visible in visual art, writing and music systems.


1979-81 - A level - advanced work on continuums between abstract and figurative work
1981-85 - Edinburgh University studying pure form and space in Geography. Urban sociology  leads to me seeking methods of social remediation.
1987-1996 - Work using art in alternative to custody and Youth and Community work (Lothian Region, Hertfordshire and Dorset County Councils), e.g. Grafitti Art, installation work with young people.
1997-2001 - Personal work attempting to find a specifically dyslexic mode of expression culminatiing in a solo exhibition at the Michael Tippet Centre, Bath October 2001.
2001-2011 - Complete mental breakdown following collapse of the Twin Towers September 2001 and intensification of psychotic aspects of Bipolar Disorder. Deep block.


2012 - Assist in visual arts residency of Rosamund Eastman with dementia sufferers at Bodmin - I engage people with poetry. Begins to set in train healing process.
2014-5 - AS level art engaged as a continuation of healing process. Grade A.
2016-7 - Access to Higher Education Art and Design at St. Austell College as continued healing - Work with 2D and 3D processes in drawing, textiles, mixed media 12/12 modules passed with distinction. It was noted that I went way passed the level required for distinction on most modules and that my writing expression was exemplary.

CV & Education

Jonathan Lohn - 14 Southern Way, Wadebridge PL27 7BX

Profile - versatile practitioner using academic, innovative and remedial methods

Summary - I have not proceeded on an especially non-linear course, starting in the middle as a small child, working to a pinnacle in my professional career and having to start again in later life, finally retrieving the 'middle'.

Beginnings
1966 - My career began at the age of 3 when I began working with form, structures and meta-structures at an early age.
1970-90 - Psychotic Bipolar Disorder and Verbally dominant Dyslexia give me access to sensitivities and image systems, which in turn relate to transparencies in the system of objects and places which form external realities (cf. Heidegger's Dasein). Art helps me manage the illness/disability and the perceptions it produces and the  illness nourishes or provides fertile disassociation. This also helps connect the invisible with  visible in visual art, writing and music systems.
1979-81 - A level - advanced work on continuums between abstract and figurative work
1981-85 - Edinburgh University studying pure form and space in Geography. Urban sociology  leads to me seeking methods of social remediation.
1987-1996 - Work using art in alternative to custody and Youth and Community work (Lothian Region, Hertfordshire and Dorset County Councils), e.g. Grafitti Art, installation work with young people.

Peak
1997-2001 - Personal work attempting to find a specifically dyslexic mode of expression culminatiing in a solo exhibition at the Michael Tippet Centre, Bath October 2001.

Breakdown
2001-2011 - Complete mental breakdown following collapse of the Twin Towers September 2001 and intensification of psychotic aspects of Bipolar Disorder. Deep block.

Renewal
2012 - Assist in visual arts residency of Rosamund Eastman with dementia sufferers at Bodmin - I engage people with poetry. Begins to set in train healing process.
2014-5 - AS level art engaged as a continuation of healing process. Grade A.
2016-7 - Access to Higher Education Art and Design at St. Austell College as continued healing - Work with 2D and 3D processes in drawing, textiles, mixed media 12/12 modules passed with distinction. It was noted that I went way passed the level required for distinction on most modules and that my writing expression was exemplary.

Aspirations - more arte povera form based work, pre-imaged collage and remedial work with seniors with radical agendas creating images for on-line activism