Chaos and Order, the Dichotomy of OCD

This is my piece regarding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

The representation I show here is based on conversations I had with a few people, one of whom is my mother, who have the disorder. As they describe it, having things out of sync with their idea of an ordered world is extremely disturbing, hence the obsessive thoughts. The only remedy is to put things into that order, which results in compulsions. Only slight misalignment is necessary for the dissonance to exponentially increase to the point of it being anguish.

The piece is 80cm x 60cm. Both sides are done in a style influenced by the artist Cai Guo-Qiang.

The chaotic side was done using gunpowder on bristol board. The face was done in charcoal, while there are also three burned boxes in place along the side.

The ordered side is on black illustration board. Chipboard was either inked black or painted over with gesso. Each piece is placed in exact metric positions based on integers of low prime numbers.