Opening Night: Friday 15 September, 5-7pm
Exhibition Open: Friday 15, Saturday 16 & Monday 18 September, 11-4pm
Hayley Cole‘s A Walk In Mind is inspired by psychedelics and their healing properties. She focuses on how altered perception plays a big role in our lives. Her art is an argument against the stigma surrounding natural psychedelics. Hayley has researched this practice thoroughly over the last two years and uses this research to influence their work. In the immersive environment she has created at Fourth Wall Folkestone, Hayley invites you to see the work, reflect on it and ironically have your perception altered.
The pieces shown in A Walk In Mind are an exploration of Hayley’s struggle with mental and physical health. It highlights how there are treatments available that can help people, however stigma surrounding these treatments prevents them from being used (eg. psychedelic substances). For example, there is research suggesting that just one session of psilocybin can treat depression for up to six months. It is important for Hayley to share these findings through her artwork with a wider audience.
From the artist:
“A Walk In Mind aims to inspire people to think more about mycelium and research into the healing properties they have. I am hoping to help people become more aware of the stigma that has been enforced around the idea of psychedelics as a dark and scary thing. I want the exhibition to be a place of thought and connectedness where information can be gathered and viewers can create their own interpretations of the meanings within the images.
The idea of having an altered state of consciousness is something I see heavily in my work due to the portraits being warped and distorted. A face is one of the most familiar things to a human brain and when it is distorted or changed it portrays to me an altered state of mind. I find the issue of the stigma around psychedelic drugs in society is a downfall. Mainly because the government won’t allow enough research to prove that they can be used for their healing properties with mental and physical disabilities. Mycelium has the ability to reconnect pathways in the body and alter your state of mind. The agitated white lines in my work represent mycelium and connectedness.
As a creative person, I am inspired by “multi-dimension” in the sense that we as human beings are very multi-dimensional. Physically, emotionally, we come in a variety of sizes, shapes and shades. My use of figures rotationally reflects these dimensions. The colour in my pieces portrays the positivity that can come from natural psychedelic treatment and to portray it in a positive light rather than of fear that has been falsely installed within us.
I have been passionate about art since a young age, influenced by my mother who went to art college and made graphic signs most of her life. I followed in her footsteps achieving a foundation at the University of the Creative Arts Canterbury. Currently, I am in my 3rd year studying Printmaking at Brighton University.
Unfortunately my mother passed away from cancer when I was 5 years of age. This installed a life-long passion for art and design as a way to feel close to her. These events provoked struggles with my mental and physical health throughout my life, inspiring me to research psychedelics and psilocybin mushrooms. Watching the series “Fantastic Fungi” energised me into teaching people about mycelium and fungi. After seeing proof of how fungi helped treat a stage 4 cancer patient, I was upset that this treatment wasn’t available to my mother due to the false information around mushrooms and the relation to “dangerous” psychedelic properties. The concrete proof of psychedelic treatment for mental health in the film was incredible, this is where my passion for psychedelics and healing began to trickle through into my work.”