School of Creative
Industries
Jillian Toshie Suyono
With a formal background in the arts, Jillian’s drive to integrate theory and practice with the practical needs of individuals and communities led them to join the MA Art Therapy programme at LASALLE College of the Arts.
Jillian’s artistic pursuits span both the interior and the exterior, exploring questions of gender and identity as well as the relationships between people and the physical and virtual environments they inhabit. They work across a variety of media, favouring digital audio, video and text. This has reinforced their keen interest in the possible use of digital media in art therapy.
Having worked with adults with autism spectrum disorder and patients in palliative care, Jillian has observed first-hand how artistic expression takes a variety of unexpected forms when faced with limitations. While eclecticism is never the end goal in their practice, they nonetheless find it appropriate to take a mixed media approach in an increasingly multifaceted social context.
Work
I see you’re on your holiday in the tropics in that chair you hate
Interactive installation
Dimensions variable
2024
In I see you're on your holiday in the tropics in that chair you hate, weathered technology and the aesthetics of nostalgia drive an exploration of the ways in which we reassess and reappraise memories of past experiences.
An instruction displayed on a monitor requests the viewer’s interaction, leading to narratives that encourage reflection on how we understand the past only through the present, finding different meanings in both as we recall moments in our lives.
Thesis abstract
More than words: Text-based art therapy with patients undergoing palliative care
The aim of this qualitative, practitioner-based thesis was to examine the efficacy and potential benefits of applying a person-centred care approach to art therapy with individuals receiving palliative care following terminal diagnoses at a community hospital in Singapore. The research question examined was whether text-based interventions could be used to enable the patient to engage with the artmaking session on a creative task even if they did not produce conventional artwork. In the research, it was found that individuals responded positively to these interventions, with the tangible outcomes of these sessions taking on artistic qualities suited for art therapy.