Photography by 'Art Documentation'.
The Anxiety Shop (2022)
3 month pop-up store in Melbourne CBD
The Anxiety Shop was a conceptual retail space that treated anxiety not as something to fix, but something to look at, laugh with, and live alongside.
Produced as a pop-up store, the project used the language of retail to invite the general public to engage with anxiety outside of clinical or pathological frameworks (and something more accessible than a gallery). Greeting cards, t-shirts, mugs, magazines and tea towels transformed internal thought patterns into shareable, everyday objects, tools that helped people approach taboo topics with humour and ease. I got the idea from a common piece of advise when dealing with OCD; taking your thoughts too seriously is half the problem.
A series of public programs, including workshops and talks, expanded the project into a space for collective reflection, conversation and learning.
As an artist-run business, the project’s success was not measured in revenue, but in the quality of interactions it generated and the subtle shifts it created in the surrounding community. Visitors often entered quietly, browsing with hesitation, until moments of recognition (frequently sparked by laughter at an ironic slogan) opened up conversation. It might be easier to buy a friend a tea-towel that talks about how you are feeling you the inside, than directly start a conversation about mental health.