Light into Darkness, Exhibit History



	DANVERS STATE HOSPITAL all photos by Jeremy Barnard

In 1993, a highly unusual collaboration began when sculptor Andy Chulyk and photographer Jeremy Barnard visited the closed North Shore Insane Asylum under cover of darkness. They discovered and recorded the artifacts in the rubble and the art and messages the patients had painted on the walls and the mysterious site itself. They focused on the evidence of abandonment and loss and responded creatively as artists.

THE LOBOTOMIST'S WAITING ROOM
with sculptor Andy Chulyk

The work developed into a dynamic collection which was mounted in Lawrence’s Essex Art Center, Newburyport’s Ice House, and the Arts Center in Newton. Along the way it sparked controversy and mesmerized audiences of all kinds, for a variety of reasons.

Eventually there were TV discussion programs and radio interviews and the artists were called upon to explain and defend. Former asylum employees wanted to know: was this a sensationalist attempt to editorialize on patient experimentation and abuse?

The artists were surprised to discover that they needed to clarify the intent of their work, which they had believed spoke for itself-- to memorialize the lives of these forgotten people by bringing alive the objects they had worn, touched, and painted.

This collection is unusual also for its relevancy to the work of Dubuffet early in the century as he struggled to draw attention to the validity and power of the expression of visionary, psychotic, and other oft-disregarded artists, many of them institutionalized. This work-- along with the output of isolated “natural” geniuses without education or any outside influence-- has since become recognized, under the umbrella name of ART BRUT. You will find many exciting sites featuring work in this category at the Sites, Film, DVD link on this site.

CAGE, PLATE, AND CHAIN
with sculptor Andy Chulyk

DUNCE CAP

MITHRA CIRCLE
showing sculptor Andy Chulyk in performance on a rotating platform in one of the towers

JEREMY BARNARD AT DANVERS

There is no doubt that the history of this powerful place continues to have a devastating effect on any sensitive person walking its halls. The cycles of vulnerability, hopelessness and depression felt by Chulyk and Barnard during their collaboration may have contributed to certain events in their lives for some time afterward, similar to the phenomenon felt frequently by war photographers and journalists. The impact of Danvers on their lives is documented in the books they are now completing-- singly and perhaps also as a continuing team-- and is documented in a chapter of the book HAUNTED PALACE, published in early 2005 and NOW IN PRINT, by a colleague, Michael Ramseur, whose journey to Danvers is also recorded on this site.

ORDER THE BOOK on THIS SITE