Demi Nandhra

Oil and Water is a performance about women, mental illness and religion; the beauty and absurdity of faith in the face of an illness. What happens when we suspend our disbelief?

Demi takes antidepressants and her ‘Mummy-Jee’ drinks holy water. Both laugh at the other's choice, but after 20 years of laughing Demi has started to wonder, what will happen if she takes a leap beyond the construct of language to see what faith can be? All in the hope of driving the sadness out.

Studies suggest that regular religious services can improve the immune system, decrease blood pressure and add years to ours lives. For as long as man has been called man religious faith and belief has had the ability to make us feel inexplicably better. Belief-based healing requires two things, a good story and the effort of an active listener. Are we ready to listen? Do we have the ability to make the imagined feel real? Can god heal the sadness or is it just a placebo and does that even matter?

This research considers the distance between Eastern and Western Philosophies; that the concept of health is a matter of overcoming illness, of destroying pathology. Oil and Water asks you to consider weighing both rational thought and irrational thought in equal measure. You’re invited to witness this ritual act. A ceremony, filled with scepticism and an artist full of hope.