Exhibit exploring psychedelics and Sask. medical legacy to open at Mackenzie Art Gallery

A video still from MacDonnel's installation. (Photo courtesy: Mackenzie Art Gallery)

An exhibit exploring psychedelic experiences and its connection to the history of the former mental hospital in Weyburn will open at the Mackenzie Art Gallery on Thursday.

The Beyond Within, presented by Toronto based visual artist Annie MacDonell, draws on sites of experimentation that are full of artistic and political possibilities, according to a release from the Mackenzie Art Gallery.

The exhibit opening in Regina will feature patient illustrations and medical transcripts from the former Weyburn Mental Hospital

The mental hospital opened in 1921 and was home to experimental treatment throughout the years, including LSD and electroshock treatment.

“To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic,” Dr. Humphrey Osmond, British psychiatrist and superintendent of the Weyburn Mental Hospital wrote to his friend Aldous Huxley in 1957, thus coining the word “psychedelic.”

Osmond's research proposed LSD would gain insight to better understand patients by mimicking the psychotic effects of schizophrenia, according to the Canadian Enyclopedia.

Osmond and fellow psychiatrist Abram Hoffer worked on a study using LSD as treatment for mental health issues.

The hospital closed its doors in 1971. It officially closed in 2004 and was demolished in 2009.

The hospital’s controlled use of psychedelics is a prominent part of Saskatchewan’s progressive medical legacy, according to the release, which will provide a backdrop to the exploration of ideas in the exhibit.

An installation titled Set and Setting will feature two interior environments inspired by clinically guided psychedelic trips that were conducted at Weyburn’s mental hospital.

Within the installation space, visitors can watch videos that create a journey where the distinction between a patient and nurse is made unclear, suggesting that boundary between subject and viewer is porous and shifting, the release said.

The gallery is hosting a free admission evening on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., which will include access to MacDonell’s exhibit as well as an artist walkthrough at 7 p.m., followed by a reception.

The exhibit will run until Oct. 1, 2023.