Raisa Watkiss was born in Pembrokeshire South Wales in 1977. She received her first-class Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in 2015 from the CASS School of Art and Design Whitechapel London, collecting the annual dissertation prize.
She said of her work in an interview in 2014 It’s always tricky because you have multiple layers in your concept and motivation to work as The maker. The trick is, I guess, to prioritise what needs communicating. For clarity, it can be essential to hold back on some elements. There remains a need to interpret my Mental ill-health, which has Triggered my life experiences ( anxiety, loss, compulsive ritualistic behaviour), and a mind that feels cluttered with intrusive thoughts that have led to two failed suicide attempts. Thus, the motivation to visualise what in a majority is invisible and present it in a format that satisfies conceptual understanding where the idea remains a catalyst for exploration. Being consumed by ritualistic behaviours, what are the stakes for the observer? And what does Mental ill-health tell us about the world? I’ve often wondered if It wasn’t for this, would I still create Art? Would my art travel in this direction?. As its influences consume me, it’s challenging to be objective and detached from these questions. In the broader social norms, perception of mental illness is both of acceptance and denial in equal measure. Indeed art from asylums, institutions, ‘Outsider’ art is recognised as ‘art.’ Having worked with Koestler arts (the U.K. prison arts charity) and curating shows for high-risk offenders in Leicestershire as a therapeutic method of engaging with offending behaviour.
The subject/viewer is confronting mental illness. The use of nostalgia as something to hold or destroy is the method of communication; it’s not necessarily the concept. It’s a discussion about a vehicle through which a dialogue is Opened. Some may think it will trigger thoughts of memory loss mental health; others may see it as social change. But the disquieting mind and the struggle are there to see. The erosion of nostalgia and the cluttered mind searching for relevance, an answer even is the engagement and seeking the attention to start such dialogues is essential. My struggle with lucidity was brought upon by crippling mental anxiety is represented by the work, chaotic and others void of the physical. My nostalgic enterprise should not be confused with reminiscence as in the good old days, but an exploration into the dark mind of the distressed. My loss of lucidity and conscious self-awareness is mirrored by the demons that occupy the mind, The intrusive thoughts that dictate actions and outcomes.
The fascination of the disintegration of art, the abstraction and liberation of the idea, the idea of post-aesthetic value. The object continues to be a less relevant piece in the decision-making process. The idea, the collection of ideas, and the journey will remain at the forefront of my process. And continue exploring contradictions between the use of obsolete technology and the development of the contemporary dialogue in exploring mental distress. Mark Fisher spoke to us of ‘hauntology”, a position taken from Jacques Derrida; Fisher explores a fretful philosophical spectre in the ghosts of Futures not fulfilled (Fisher, M (2014). Fishers' writing explores coherent speculations of Vestiges of half-remembered fragments lost to the spirits of a future unfulfilled. Does this speak to us culturally? This resonates with the demons which occupy my mind. My forgetfulness was brought on by anxiety that I, too, search for cultural understanding, awareness of self, and place in the conflicting cultural dystopia of the postmodern condition. I’ve begun to consider the object’s value (fiscal, aesthetic, need, want, like, appreciate). Stripping down the object into its selective components (form, idea, concept, materials, time spent, effort), Can we attribute this?. How do notions of spirituality within the object communicate to the subject/viewer? And how does the artist/maker connect with this.? Hollins informs us, ‘for this reason; most people will like traditional art and loath modern art because modern art tries to remove the sense of order and organisation that your intelligence imposes over that you see’ (Hollins, C. 2013 ). Investigation utilising the multi-display approach would help develop a dialogue with the object to transpose the visual bodily experience into vivid English. Whether we accept the self-evident or unquestionable belief of Rosalind Krauss’s expanded field or not, the questions of the relationship of the object's purpose to the subject/viewers’ experience seem to be central to a belief system.