Performing sanity
The theatre of performing sanity is a theme that recurs throughout RX, particularly in Lindsay’s recounting of a 2011 hospital stay. In one image, three schematic faces--fearful, embarrassed, and angry---peer out of the page at us, like the masks of Greek tragedians.
The performance theme is reprised in “Mirror Mirror,” a chapter dedicated to Lindsay’s employment at Pfizer, where she works on the ad copy for mental health medications. At work, Lindsay draws herself wearing a wolf mask. Her bipolar disorder is feral and secret.
A double-page panel reflecting an image of a depressed woman as a wind-up toy looking in the mirror at a healthier version of herself, presumably one of the ads Lindsay has worked on, is contrasted with Lindsay’s own reality. In this image, a dejected Lindsay sits slumped over her bed. Her mirror cannot reflect what she wants to see, but only the clutter in her room, and the suicidal refrain in her head. The effect is to dispel pharmacological formulas that attest to easy transitions from sickness to wellness. Her drawings – in their complexity - challenge the notion of what it is to be whole and what it is to be well.