Bel Hevi

2014.  Archival Ink on Museo Silver Rag.    Edition of 8


Bel Hevi is a Papua New Guinean phrase for “a tangible heavy sinking feeling often experienced in tandem with great sadness”.

This series explores the merciless quality of depression. It is an unseen enemy that lays siege upon a person’s vitality and spirit, their enjoyment and their motivation for any endeavour.    The threat, though ever-present, is sometimes dorman but can be triggered by the smallest circumstance.  

The first emotion is that sinking feeling, a weight pressing down, and then if the spirit is game, the instinct to fight kicks in.   There is a fire within, embers of hope to be protected.   There is sometimes a victory, else the aftermath is helplessness and despair. 

This is a cycle, a series of battles, a journey of emotion inside the human form.

You cannot put a Fire out—
A Thing that can ignite
Can go, itself, without a Fan—
Upon the slowest Night

— Emily Dickinson