When looking at art have you ever encountered the following symptoms: General disinterest, an inability to concentrate, repeated sighing, aimless gift shop meandering or outbursts of quasi-meaningful commentary followed by lingering feelings of inadequacy?
Maybe you’re suffering from what Wellington-born, Melbourne based artist Jason Maling calls “art anxiety”.
In his project The Physician, on during the NZ Festival, Jason takes a playful approach to the way we experience art by conducting one-to-one sessions at City Gallery Wellington. In his sessions, he guides patients to develop exercises to combat common cultural maladies such as fidgeting, boredom and head- bang-inducing frustration. He draws on a selection of bright blue felt tools which patients work with in the gallery to open up new possibilities for engaging with art.
Despite the name of his work, Jason claims to have “absolutely no medical training beyond once practicing mouth to mouth on a latex dummy in standard 4 PE class and being able to apply a Band-Aid without letting the sticky bits touch each other”.
