At a first glance, Kelly Kale’s 01.31.00 is a cozy living room scene filled with family photos, a cup of tea, and an ambiance of home. Stepping inside, the viewer is flooded with an absence. Within each of these family photos the artist removed herself and left a white figure in her place. In addition to being instructed to make themselves at home, viewers are offered blacklights to investigate the exhibition further. In an ink only seen through the blacklight, dates spanning from 2000 to 2022 are written alongside the photographs detailing thoughts from those moments in time. Kelly Kale proposes the conversation between killing oneself and never being born, factoring in the familial aspect of a parent’s true love for their child. Would a parent long for a child who never existed? Would a brother grow up wishing for a sister? Would a family be able to recover from a suicide? 01.31.00 allows its viewers to experience a moment in the eyes of a person with mental illnesses. Kelly asks her audience to resonate with this absence, for them to imagine a person they long for, or rather to exist within the mind of this white figure for the remainder of their visit.
01.31.00 I was born
2012 I didn’t know what was wrong with me
10.28.13 I self harmed for the first time
02.10.14 I self diagnosed myself with depression
2015 I had panic attacks at school everyday
01.18.16 I saw a therapist for the first time
02.03.16 I took antidepressants
06.22.16 I wanted to kill myself
09.08.17 My world fell apart
03.16.18 I felt disgusted in my own body
07.02.18 I got happy again
07.30.19 I wished I was never born
2019 I started having OCD
09.15.19 I committed myself to a psychiatric hospital
05.21.2020 I moved back in with my parents
01.14.21 I never felt so alone
05.13.21 I almost killed myself
05.26.21 I almost killed myself
08.01.21 I didn’t cut myself
10.01.21 I felt good again
04.17.22 I cried about not knowing what to do with my life
2012 I didn’t know what was wrong with me
10.28.13 I self harmed for the first time
02.10.14 I self diagnosed myself with depression
2015 I had panic attacks at school everyday
01.18.16 I saw a therapist for the first time
02.03.16 I took antidepressants
06.22.16 I wanted to kill myself
09.08.17 My world fell apart
03.16.18 I felt disgusted in my own body
07.02.18 I got happy again
07.30.19 I wished I was never born
2019 I started having OCD
09.15.19 I committed myself to a psychiatric hospital
05.21.2020 I moved back in with my parents
01.14.21 I never felt so alone
05.13.21 I almost killed myself
05.26.21 I almost killed myself
08.01.21 I didn’t cut myself
10.01.21 I felt good again
04.17.22 I cried about not knowing what to do with my life