The Story of Irene Wilde
A Dignified Experience
a Wilde biography
Leading with a sea of naked portraits and intimate musings, Irene Wilde’s avant-pop artistry is irrevocably sentient. As she echoes “You are not alone in feeling,” she lends to others the same kindness she hopes to receive. The very name Irene Wilde – a surname taken from the perception of her character based on her Bipolar I diagnosis – allows her to flow between who she is authentically and what stigma dictates.
Wilde initially began pursuing a degree in architecture citing, “I want to create art you can escape into.” Her ambitions were skewed, however, when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when seeking treatment from a traumatic event. These experiences left her feeling alone and invalidated; often leading her to self-isolate. Years later, Irene chose to vocalize these experiences through her art to generate those conversations on mental health, consent, and self-worth that she wished would have occurred during that time. Irene realized she no longer needed to create art you could step into – she needed to create a safe space we can go to heal.
The Blackest Bile (Narrator’s Edition) is a body of work in 3 installments: Melancholia, Spleen, and Pyrrhicae. The project explores mental illness, trauma, and what it means to be resilient. As she shares all the things she was taught to hide within these records, she demands what we are all owed during our own trials and tribulations: A Dignified Experience.
Though it should be noted for any listener: proceed with caution. This tale was written with the mindset that the only way out is through. As she states in Spleen, “I now give you permission to grieve.”
The Blackest Bile: Narrator’s Edition is out now.
You’re not alone in feeling
An Artist Statement
“I paint figures that make beautiful my own vulnerabilities. I sing about what makes me blush. This is me connecting in the way I know how. For these parts we tend to hide, they too have a desire to be known. They have a desire to be assured.”
It began when I started making art that frightened me because of what truths it made apparent. I feared a lot then, and to some degree still fear a lot now. But those fears have become different things entirely. Simply, I will not allow any more external forces to dictate what I will and will not love.
Creating art has always been my way of returning to self. It is a confrontational act through various mediums – that act of forcing out both how I feel and what I do not want to feel anymore. But no one is all bad or all good or all sad or all happy. Just like you I can be hopeful, kind, and vibrant – and yet still contain an internal monologue that can be distant, bound to apathy, and yet irrefutably still very much my own. And my art materializes this very human battle.
My art does not judge. It is empathy in sound and paint. It simply allows you and I to feel our feelings. For we all deserve A Dignified Experience.
with love and hope,
