SPACE 2 : NARELLE CRIDLAND

Exhibition dates. 15 - 27 July 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 16 July 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Psychological Acumen

Psychological Acumen emerged from my personal experience with diagnosing, analysing and the ongoing treatment of my mental health issues derived from my husband’s death in 2018. The trauma associated with his death rendered me a prisoner in my home and diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I spent the next three years receiving various psychological treatments including rapid eye therapy, a therapy that attempts to replace traumatic images with less stressful ones. Open to the idea of alternative treatments, a suggestion of connecting with creativity was explored as a method of healing and transformation. Self-expression and the process of discovering self through symbolic and metaphoric messages explored in creativity balanced the mind and produced a voice. The work is a nonverbal participant in the healing process, a mirror of self and although it might be hard to look it, these feelings need to be seen and acknowledged for healing to occur.

Narelle Cridland is an artist, arts educator and photographer whose didactic works are deeply connected to trauma. The fiction originates from personal histories which have been subdivided into pivotal moments in time. Before and after tragedy. Using the system of collage and weaving, I can deconstruct my past – “the before” by collecting, appropriating and dismantling objects, photographic memories and artworks associated with it and reconstructing – “the after” in layers of colour, pattern and texture to generate an alternative me. Her diverse practice spans, photography, painting, sculpture, drawing and mixed media collage.