Open Up

Open Up is a collection of screenprints that tell stories of Victoria Day’s experiences with anxiety, depression, motivation and mental health. Her figures convey a sense of defiance and confrontation representative of the internal struggles that sometimes seem impossible to address and the strength it takes to overcome or simply accept them. Each screenprint is inspired by a specific struggle and whether it’s the numbing sensation of obsessive thoughts (Heavy), the desire to unlearn a hurtful truth (Bliss), or the realization that it’s time to confront a fear of vulnerability (Open Up).

Victoria Day’s time spent hand-drawing her imagery is used to observe and analyze these stories so that as she completes the work she is able to let them go. By communicating through a visual language, she hopes viewers who share in her experiences with mental health can identify with the work and feel a sense of solidarity.

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Victoria Day is an interdisciplinary Toronto printmaker examining the themes of gender, sexuality, self-indulgence, and mental health through an autobiographical lens. She is inspired by the duality of the internal – the mind, identity, thought – and the external – the body, society, action. Her screenprints and drawings explore the fluctuating relationship between these elements through self-portraiture, bridging her interior landscape with her exterior form. Being of mixed race she rarely identifies with work that is based on culture and is instead drawn to telling stories that are emotionally driven and communicate personal experiences.