Adventures with depression - FRINGE FESTIVAL 2019

An adventure without Christopher Robin, a map or anything useful, really.

Artist and activist, Kate Aschoff, has experienced depression since they were 14. Here Kate will present stories and experiences from the last 20 years of their life. We're hoping this adventure will end up taking them somewhere that feels home and we that hope you'll come too.

 What is the story behind the story?

Adventures with depression has been in the making since 2014. Before I considered myself a poet or performer. Before I even knew I had depression. Before I'd come out. Before anything. 2014 marked a lot of endings for me but it also marked a whole lot of beginnings.

I've been creating content around my depression and mental illness for years now. Photography, poems, drawing, videos, prose. I'm still exploring this sickness and illness in as many ways and art forms as I can. For me, expressing and talking about these experiences is the most healing thing I could possibly do. I'm in charge of my own story and am able to create the opportunity for myself to share things I don't know how to put into words. It helps heal me and helps others understand and identify our shared connections and experiences, being able to have other people see their own stories in my art is the most rewarding thing. Storytelling is a powerful thing and I have so many of them to tell.

 Themes

Something I'm thinking about while in the process of creating this project is how to create the feeling of "dry flowers, crying in the afternoon and having bad dreams. drinking and seeing friends. cheese pizza, zines, poetry and journals" these are the things I currently think of when I think about my depression. It's not just the feeling of being sad, but the experiences I build around it, with others and with myself.

I'm also currently feeling strongly about moving away from the idea of overcoming and moving towards enduring. I think that we feel we have to "get over" and "move past" a lot of the difficult things in our life, but I want to pay tribute to feeling, acknowledging and enduring that pain. Because really, at the end of the day, all you can do is feel it, overcoming is possible but it takes time and I want to shed light on simply getting by and the beauty and strength in that.

The main theme of the show will be centred around how awful things happen, but that we can get through them, learning and growing on the way. We are bleeding and healing at the same time.

Project updates

If you want to keep up to date on this body of work follow us on instagram @adventures_gram or on facebook: Adventures with depression Fringe Festival 2019 

About the artist

Kate Aschoff is a 20 year old, queer artist and social advocate from Poneke, Aotearoa. They have been performing since high school, writing poetry since they were 13, and been sad for almost as long as they can remember. Kate is very active in the Wellington LGBTQIA+ community and works with youth especially. They makes zines, write for Salient magazine, eat a lot of hummus, attend weekly therapy, love Grey's Anatomy and have a lot of opinions. Kate is incredibly nervous/excited about 'Adventures in depression' - this will be their first Fringe show and their first solo performance.

You can read more about their art at kateaschoff.tumblr.com or follow them on instagram @kateashoff