Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Low Down
In 2021 Sam Kissajukian gave up comedy to become an artist. And create he did: 300 paintings during a five-month-long manic bipolar episode. Now he looks back to evaluate the work and the episode.
Review
The surprises start early in 300 Paintings.
Australian Sam Kissajukian begins by telling the audience he gave up stand-up comedy to become an artist, that he wanted to find more truth in his work. Prior training as an artist: Nil.
He then reveals that in 2021 he secluded himself and made 300 paintings in five months. The COVID-19 pandemic made isolation socially acceptable, and Kissajukian was determined to make the most of it. No smartphone doomscrolling for him: He had work to do. He then starts a slide show, and given his lack of experience the audience’s expectations are low as he shares his first efforts of this explosive productivity on a large screen.
But the paintings are good. Really good. The man has talent.
The self-deprecating Kissajukian makes fun of many of his early works, particularly the portraits he makes of fellow comedians, and his comedic timing and delivery — as can be expected from a former comic — is killer. But his art is no joke. Far from it.
Nor is his mental-health condition. Kissajukian discovers later that his creative propulsion and astounding productivity is the result of an extended manic bipolar episode; the crash afterwards is just as lengthy, ample time for needed introspection and examination as he walked (and continues to walk) the road to self-recovery.
As he evaluates his own fast-forwarded art movements (cubism, shadow puppets, digital museums, among many others) in retrospect and shares hilarious stories, including those of various hedge fund managers who granted him Zoom meetings and then seed money because they’d never heard ideas as wild and novel as what he was proposing and didn’t want to miss out on the next big thing, it’s obvious that Kissajukian has an extraordinary mind and that great ideas were unleashed during his manic episode.
Thus raises a question that arises repeatedly in art history, from Michelangelo to Van Gogh to Degas to Rothko (and the list goes on and on): Is there a correlation between great innovations in art and the creating artists who struggle with mental illness?
It’s on this point that Kissajukian could have delved deeper. Does he think he could have achieved his jaw-dropping output had he not had his five-month-long manic episode? And how have his work and creative processes been affected now that he has professional help and feels like he has his mental health under control?
300 Paintings doesn’t fully answer those questions, but after the show Kissajukian — ever the warm and friendly host — invites the audience to see his work in Summerhall’s In Vitro Gallery, where he happily will discuss the show and his work with anyone who wants to engage. Even at Edinburgh Fringe Kissajukian goes the extra mile. How fortunate we all are that he does.
