School of Creative
Industries
Vivyan Yeo
Vivyan began her journey in the fine arts world, working in art galleries, an auction house and a multimedia platform specialising in Southeast Asian art history. These experiences helped Vivyan grow passionate about making positive and lasting changes on people using conversation and art.
During her time in LASALLE College of the Arts' MA Art Therapy programme, she provided art therapy services in a primary school with a care programme for disadvantaged children and a residential home for female adolescents in the Child Protection System. Her research interests include the shame of trauma, self-esteem and how art therapy can be informed by the Internal Family Systems model.
Vivyan was a finalist for the ANZACATA Student Academic Achievement Scholarship award, attaining the highest grades in the cohort during her first year in the programme. She has also published articles exploring the intersection between art therapy, art history and exhibition-making.
Work
Filling the Space Between
Colour pencil on paper (series of seven)
28 x 21.5 x 12 cm (each)
2024
Two people’s world views can be both different but equally real and valid. In this series, seven pop-ups are scattered around the exhibition space. Each of them conveys a message said by an individual in a larger conversation between two loved ones.
The artist wrote it as a hypothetical dialogue, because it would otherwise be too painful to receive. The process was an exercise in mentalisation, as she tries to empathise with another.
Audiences may gently open each pop-up and be present with these moments of vulnerability. They may piece together the full exchange or be reminded of other conversations in their lives.
Thesis abstract
The shame of trauma: Raising self-esteem through art therapy informed by internal family systems with female adolescents in a residential home
This qualitative, practitioner-based thesis explores how art therapy might be informed by the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model to address the shame of trauma and build self-esteem for female adolescents living in a residential home in Singapore.
The paper gathers findings from a single case study that discusses three artistic tendencies: writing, handprints and family landscapes, and paint washes. As adolescents are at the stage of forming their sense of identity, the IFS model can inform art directives and formulations that honour the complexity of the human mind. Combined with psychodynamic art therapy, the model can encourage clients to affirm their existing positive qualities, express previously hidden aspects of themselves and offer acceptance to all their varied parts.