Current Exhibition
They say she is bipolar and he’s got OCD
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)
of Mental Disorders Text Re –Revised and Related Texts
by Pierre Leichner
December 7, 2011 - February 3, 2012
Fresh A.I.R Gallery is pleased to present Medicine Man featuring the artwork of Calen Pick.
Pierre will be traveling from his home in Vancouver, BC for his reception, artist talk, and an interview with OSU’s department of disabilities and the Digital Archives of Literacy Narratives (DALN).
Over the past five years, Pierre has been transitioning from a thirty-year career as an academic/ administrator psychiatrist to that of an artist. This desire is fueled both by a lifelong dream and by his dismay with the direction our health care system has been taking. During the past few years, he has become aware of many of the similarities between Science and Art. At their core, they share the pursuit of meaning... Both can embrace the same multi-factorial approaches to understanding, which includes biological, psychological, social-cultural, and spiritual factors. Furthermore, in the past couple of years he has seen an increase in his understanding that Art is not only about creating aesthetic emotion in an audience, but also about socio-political and philosophical issues.
In this body of work Pierre has altered books. The sculptures created by modifying Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) Re-Revised draws on his previous experiences and knowledge as a psychiatrist and an artist. It questions the political and economic issues that are associated with psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Pierre transforms DSM Training Guides, DSM Case Books and Compendiums of Pharmaceutical Specialties (CPS). Despite giving some acknowledgement to cultural factors and claiming to be atheoretical, the DSM’s categorical system favors biological research, which is often funded by the pharmaceutical industry.
This body of work is not anti-DSM, anti–psychiatry, anti-diagnosis or anti–pharmacotherapy. It is not against books per se as instruments for the dissemination and control of knowledge. But it is against the unquestioned, unbalanced use of any mode of interventions by health care providers and their blind acceptance by their clients. It is against any theories or treatment approaches that diminish the importance of the unquantifiable humanness necessary in health care. It is against providing health care as a for profit business.
Further information and images of others altered texts are available at
www.leichner.ca and Pierre’s blog Shrink in Transition.
Opening Reception:
Wednesday December 7, 2011
5:30pm - 7:00pm
131 N. High Street
Columbus, OH 43215
614.744.8110
Map »
Gallery hours:
Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m - 5:30 p.m.
Gallery Contact:
Kim Webb, (614) 394-4159
PR Contact:
Myken Pullins, (614) 225-0980