With the ADNSW 2024-25 Annual Report now tabled with NSW Parliament, we sat down with Sydney-based artist Jeremy William Smith to talk about his commissioned work, Psyche Map of Survival.
Created for the ADNSW Annual Report, the piece acknowledges the harm caused while marking the historic Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 (NSW), which came into force on 4 April 2025.
Known for his intricate, large-scale drawings that create counter-maps of queerness, Jeremy brings a deeply personal perspective as a survivor of conversion practices. His artwork charts the descent into trauma and the ascent into truth, community, and love made possible by the ban.
The idea for Psyche Map of Survival came from the intersection of my personal history as a survivor of conversion practices and the significance of the Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 (NSW). I felt a deep responsibility to create a work that not only reflected my own journey but also honoured the wider survivor community, especially those who did not survive.
I was guided by Milton’s line, “the mind is its own place and can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven,” and Botticelli’s map of Dante’s Divine Comedy, both of which explore how internal landscapes shape our realities. I wanted to visualise the way harmful beliefs imposed through conversion practices create a downward psychological spiral, one bad thought leading to another and how the opposite is also true: truth, community and self-acceptance can lead to a positive spiral and the reversal of that trajectory.
The concept grew from my PhD research into intersubjective counter-cartography, where I map emotional, psychological and spatial histories through detailed drawing. It also was heavily informed by Professor Tiffany Jones’ research paper Healing Spiritual Harms.
The most meaningful moment in the design process was reading the research and testimonies of other survivors and realising how profoundly their experiences mirrored my own. Their words became the text woven around the edges of the spiral, so the negative and positive self-talk in the artwork is not only my internal voice but a chorus of many.
As I drew each psychological “level” as a world, I felt myself re-entering those states, the descent into fear and shame, and the ascent into truth and self-acceptance. It was an intensely emotional process, almost like reliving my own memories through the stories of others. I also felt the weight of responsibility for those who did not survive conversion practices. At times it felt as if their voices were echoing through me, through time, urging me to honour their suffering and ensure their experiences were not lost or erased.
I hope people feel the full emotional weight of what this artwork represents. Psyche Map of Survival is not only a map of harm, but a memorial to those who did not survive conversion practices and whose absence still echoes through our community. Their stories, their suffering and their silenced futures sit at the foundation of the downward spiral.
At the same time, the artwork celebrates the resilience of those who made it through and the countless lives that will now be saved because this legislation finally exists. I want people to understand that this reform is not theoretical, it protects real people.
For survivors, I hope the piece feels validating and truthful; for others, I hope it sparks empathy and recognition of the human cost behind these practices. Above all, I want viewers to feel the upward pull of the artwork, that healing is possible, that community saves lives, and that truth and love are transformative forces capable of breaking even the deepest forms of harm.
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