By Andriana Simos & Frances Tsatsoulis
STRUGGLING to open a bottle of white wine with both hands straddled around the neck, 20-year-old feminist art student Alexis Kaye Tynan stands behind the bar on opening night. It’s the exhibition for the National Art School’s final year students and Alexis looks like the embodiment of raw girl power with her denim overalls and glitter-blue winged eyeliner. The girl has the cool arts vibe down pat and when we approach the bar, we are greeted by her friendly smile as she shows her ‘Hypersomnia’ series to a set of complete arts newbies.
It is clear from one glance at her work that hypersomnia is no match for Alexis. Being an aspiring artist, she uses her artworks to break free from the shackles of the debilitating disorder. It is so debilitating that Alexis can sleep anytime and anywhere. Put her in an art studio however, and she is in her element. She is a girl on a mission to overcome her daily struggle with “the unpopular younger cousin” of insomnia.
Alexis’ struggle began at the tender age of 15 when she was first diagnosed with hypersomnia. Previously suffering from insomnia, she now struggles with 13 hours of sleep a day and extreme doses of exhaustion. Although this angers her, she also has a “can-do” attitude. Nothing and no one will get in her way. Not even the draining experience of battling hypersomnia can take away the pure joy and happiness which art brings her. In fact, as she describes her diagnosis, it is clear that she doesn’t let her condition control her life and has embraced it through her creative process.
“When I was younger… I just barely slept. I went on medication at the age of 15, called Seroquel, which I like to describe as a human tranquiliser because it just knocks you out. That is when I started oversleeping,” Alexis recalls.
“Now I just use the creative process to allow me to work through my issues and frustrations with sleep.”
According to the American Sleep Association, the disorder is quite rare as it affects under 1% of the population and very little is known about it within the wider community. This lack of understanding makes it difficult for people to comprehend what Alexis goes through on a daily basis and she tries to correct this via her artwork.
“I have a lot of people coming up to me and asking what the work is about. When I explain that it is about hypersomnia, people get more of an understanding of it,” Alexis says.
“A lot of people don’t even know that it exists. So with the [artwork], I guess I kind of raise a bit of awareness, people understand that it is a thing, they ask these questions and people who actually know me realise that I’m not just lazy. It’s actually an illness and it really sucks.”
In fact, laziness is not even on Alexis’ radar. Putting her heart and soul into the collection, she made a number of radical artistic decisions. One piece in particular, which features the artist herself topless, copped the most criticism. She was immediately inundated with passive-aggressive statuses from fellow art students who failed to comprehend the true reason behind her decision to go topless.
“I uploaded a photo of one of my artworks onto Instagram and… had to put little stars where my nipples were. People instantly assumed that the artwork was about #freethenipple, which was a strong trend at the time going against Instagram’s nudity guidelines restricting topless pictures,” she explains.
“Some girl obviously saw the photo and five minutes later made a passive-aggressive status saying, ‘Why would you make a work about freeing the nipple and then edit stars over it? That’s stupid.’ So after I liked her status, she deleted it and then liked my photo. It was ridiculous.”
Though initially caught off-guard by the negative response, which showed a lack of understanding of the piece, the emerging feminist artist set the record straight.
“I didn’t think me going topless would get that much of a reaction from anyone… If I wore my actual pyjamas, the work would have a completely different effect. When I actually go to sleep at home, I wear this massive tie-dye purple t-shirt that has a cat’s face on it and the cat is wearing a Santa hat and it has a candy cane. The work just wouldn’t have the same effect if I was wearing that. It really wouldn’t…” she says with a giggle.
“I mean, the thing is, you are at your most vulnerable when you are asleep. You are unaware to your surroundings and I think in a way, that helps capture it.
“Ultimately, in the end, the work is about me and it didn’t quite make sense to me to use someone else’s image for an issue that I am dealing with. I am the only person I know who has this problem… this strain of disorder. I felt like using my own image was important.”
Although it seemed as though everyone was against Alexis as she tried to explore her hypersomnia through art, she did gain some support from her fellow feminist artists.
“I love it! I love Alexis’ work. It’s really incredible… I guess she was topless in that image but that wasn’t the focus. It was about her hypersomnia,” says Anerleigh Simms, a fellow art student at the National Art School.
This encouragement helps Alexis power on and focus on the process of creating the art itself and her future in the art world.
“I feel like the actual process of setting up my screens is so incredibly frustrating and annoying that I don’t have a lot of time to think about the actual hypersomnia,” Alexis reflects.
“At the moment, I just ordered my new screens for screen-printing… There is definitely more to come.”
Alexis’ excitement for the future propels her to promote her feminist work as she also wants to change the lack of female representation in the art world. Though acknowledging that many female artists aren’t featured in the major galleries to the extent which men are, she maintains hope for the future.
“Being a female artist, you’re definitely put at a disadvantage but I am also really optimistic about the future. I think things are changing, attitudes are changing and the world is not the same as it always has been. I really, really hope that change, especially in our generation, is going to extend into the future and women won’t be so disadvantaged or even disadvantaged at all,” she says with determination.
It is this charismatic determination which allows her to continue to embark on her mission. She may not have overcome “the unpopular younger cousin” of insomnia, but through her art she is one step closer to defeating hypersomnia. One thing is for sure, Alexis is tenacious to soldier on, stay awake and rock the art world in her denim overalls.
Simos Standpoints 