Formoosa Island in the Indian Ocean 1914

Adolf Wölfli, working from within a Swiss asylum, created this drawing titled 'Formoosa Island in the Indian Ocean,' using colored pencil on paper. Wölfli spent the majority of his adult life institutionalized, grappling with severe mental illness and social isolation. His art became an act of self-creation and resistance, a way to construct his own identity in a world that had marginalized him. Wölfli’s drawings often feature dense, symmetrical compositions filled with idiosyncratic symbols and personal mythologies. Here we see strange geometries and surreal landscapes. Embedded within the artwork are coded references to Wölfli’s tumultuous life and his struggle to find order amidst chaos. The act of meticulously mapping out this imagined island becomes an assertion of control over his own narrative, repurposing the experience of alienation and confinement into something powerful and deeply personal. This piece gives us an insight into the complex relationship between mental health, identity, and the impulse to create. It suggests that even in the face of profound adversity, art can offer a path toward self-discovery.