Opening Reception Thursday 19 June, 5 – 7pm

This photographic exhibition by Trevor Wray is staged at the Arts & Disability Forum Gallery, on the ground floor of Cathedral Quarter Workspaces, at 109-113 Royal Avenue in Belfast.

From bonfires and parades to cats on windowsills and Scrabo Tower, Trevor Wray has layered an array of imagery that forms a series of surreal encounters. The title, Over and Over and Over, refers to the activity of using a single roll of 35mm film and shooting it through an SLR camera several times, creating multiple exposures within each frame. Trevor is bipolar and both the approach and the content of the work relate to this.

Trevor says,

“Hypermania is the polar opposite of depression and being so it is optimistic in its outlook on life. You can be just too bubbly and that’s where the problem lies; it continues on a 24/7 basis, on and on, until a person runs on empty. Then people see the power of the condition because the next stage is down into guilt, exasperation, doubt and paranoia.”

The preview will be at 5-7pm on Thursday 19 June at the ADF Gallery on Royal Avenue. Light refreshments will be available. Following the preview, the exhibition will be open to the public from 20 June until 14 August between 11am to 3pm, Tuesday to Friday. Trevor will do a talk at the Arts & Disability Forum on 31 July at 1pm as part of the ADF Conversations series.

BSL communication support is provisionally booked for the preview and talk – deaf people please confirm by Tuesday 17 June if you want to attend either of these. Audio description is also available with advance notice (usually for the day of the preview or talk). Please book both types of support by emailing leo@adf.ie or phoning 028 9023 9450.

For further information, images from the exhibition or interviews with the artist, please telephone 028 9023 9450 or email leo@adf.ie.

The artist

Born in 1958, Trevor Wray trained in Fine Art painting at York Street Art College, now the University of Ulster, obtaining a degree in 1980. He has had solo exhibitions in St. Patrick’s Centre, Downpatrick in 2013 and the Arts & Disability Forum in 2011; he has taken part in many group exhibitions that have toured internationally and has played in various bands. Trevor Wray states his influences as DADA, Robert Rauschenberg, Antoni Tapies, Thomas Hirschhorn, Paul Thek, Isa Genzken, Jonathan Meese, Outsider Art, and ‘bad art’. However the biggest inspiration for this work is personal mental health.

Trevor’s first significant manifestation of mental ill health was in the final year at art college. The stress of course-work, a final show, the first time living away from home and an art student lifestyle emphasised his experience of breakdown: “I left art college with a poor degree result – a wreck and totally disillusioned with myself. I didn’t know anything about stress or mental health conditions. I took up non-art occupations like factory work and eventually became a postman. I worked at this for 10 years.” It was whilst he was a postman that mental ill health resurfaced.

Following several breakdowns, Trevor was sectioned, hospitalised, diagnosed with Hypermania and eventually this brought retirement from the GPO: “All during this time I was still making art, it was what I aspired towards and it was an outlet for my creativity, energy and Hypermania”. The next step was Ards New Horizons, a training organisation connected to Action Mental Health. Through retraining and work experience, Trevor gained a new qualification as well as self-confidence and self-belief. He is now cook in a cafe which gives sheltered employment to people with mental health issues or learning disabilities.

The Arts & Disability Awards Ireland scheme/ iDA

Trevor Wray is a previous recipient of a grant from the Arts & Disability Awards Ireland scheme, which was managed by the ADF on behalf of the two Arts Councils of the island and has now ceased The scheme supported individual artistic development and production of new work by artists who on a personal career path. Following withdrawal of funds from An Chomhairle Ealaion, a revised grant scheme will open again shortly on an NI-only basis in partnership with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The scheme is called iDA (individual Disabled/Deaf Artists).