Nick Jordan: Mental State Signs at Paradise Works

Paradise Works presents Mental State Signs, a solo exhibition by artist Nick Jordan. Titled from a clinical term used for assessing mental health disorders, the exhibition explores themes of psychosis and surveillance, and includes new paintings, film, photography and found objects. Material on display includes schematic diagrams, clinical index cards, archival letters, audio visual equipment and illuminated signage, which the artist salvaged from an abandoned hospital’s psychiatry video studio.

A central feature of the exhibition is Nick Jordan’s hybrid documentary ‘Thought Broadcasting’. A composite of fact and fiction, the film draws upon real-life accounts of a schizophrenic disorder: the belief that one’s thoughts are being transmitted and heard by others. Set against the proliferation of mobile phone masts, the film reveals a fragmented inner world of paranoid delusions and anxiety, off-set with revelations of mass surveillance and data gathering by corporations and security agencies. Part clinical observation video, part psychological horror, the film features an original soundtrack score by Lord Mongo.