This is a unique show on so many levels. Perhaps most extraordinary in that it is a true story, told with clarity and humour, but with some big messages about mental health, creativity and redemption. Truly inspirational!
Three years ago Australian, Sam Kissajukian’s ten-year love affair with stand-up comedy ended and his shiny new relationship with abstract expressionist painting began. Sam had always had a compulsive, obsessive streak and painting seemed to play right into that sweet spot of being able to release expressive thoughts that telling jokes to drunk strangers at 1am simply didn’t.
In June 2021, his first painting, a monochrome self-portrait was created on a large piece of cardboard. During the next six months Sam worked on discarded cardboard, or left over bits of MDF, in an unused room off a warehouse in Sydney, also sleeping there. Experimenting with different mediums, first trying self-portraits or painting friends and family, Sam’s confidence grew. He began to paint from dream memories, but couldn’t always remember the dreams so started experimenting with changing his sleep patterns, sleeping during the day and painting all night, then flipping this back. He found that he could eventually dream whilst he was fully conscious during the day and capture the memories on the canvases that he had now progressed on to. His Conscious, unconscious and sub-conscious mind were having a conversation!
Along the way we are introduced to side projects, conversations with hedge fund managers in NYC, the redesign of pallets for Woolworths, the architecture of mould, how to restructure a business plan as a medieval scroll, the creation of a new currency, a virtual art gallery and a bank!
By the end of six months Sam had invented multiple new products and produced over 300 paintings. What Sam didn’t realise was that he was also having a manic episode brought on by an undiagnosed bi-polar condition, and he was about to crash hard!
In this autobiographical documentary narrated by Sam, with projected images, we take quite a trip, almost to the edge of crazy and back again. The icing on the cake is being able to view thirty of Sam’s original painting at the end of the show, and to marvel at their originality and power, exhibiting a brilliant understanding of colour theory and composition.
One painting in particular caught my eye, the large 3m x 1.5m, ‘Nostalgia’, which depicts the three distinct states of bipolar; Manic, Depressive and Stable is a stunningly executed three figure discussion piece, all blues, blacks and whites, which would not be out of place in any Modern Art Gallery.
One of my favourites from the Fringe this year, definitely in my top five of the over sixty shows I reviewed, and with its cross-over views on Art, capitalism, and mental health offers valuable insights, with humour thrown in as a sort of added bonus. Brilliant!
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 24th August 2024
North West End UK Rating:
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Running time – 1hr