Guardian of the Inner Fortress

This project was an artistic exercise in visualisation, created as a way to interrupt negative thought patterns. Feelings of self hatred were externalised into black balloons, turning something internal and abstract into a physical presence.

From this process, guardian figures were created to symbolise strength and protection. The balloon filled set represented the darker spaces of the mind, while the guardians existed within it, embodying resilience and care rather than fear.

By giving these thoughts form and then reshaping the space around them, the work explores how art can help rewrite internal narratives and offer new endings to familiar cycles. Through making the piece, I experienced a genuine shift in how I felt.

This marked the beginning of understanding myself as an artist, not just someone who makes work, but someone who needs to make art to process emotion, holding both darkness and light.