Victim of panic attacks turns negative into a positive by depicting the moments in miniature as matchbox art – a ‘symbolic way of storing her emotions’

After suffering panic attacks, Rachel Smith expressed her negative feelings in tiny dioramas she created in matchboxes. And she depicted her good days too

An art therapist says the creative process helps people cope with anxiety and can lead to inner peace

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Rachel Smith depicted her panic attacks in miniature dioramas inside matchboxes. ““When the [2019] protests started my panic attacks stopped ... That’s another form of trauma,” the Hong Kong-based artist says. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 7:15pm, 16 Jul 2021Updated: 7:30pm, 16 Jul 2021

Canadian artist and storyteller Rachel Smith was helping a friend at an exhibition when, out of the blue, her heart began racing and she felt she couldn’t breathe. Frightened and confused, she left the performance and ran back to her Hong Kong studio in Prince Edward.

“I was crying and shaking, and hid under the table and called my husband,” says Smith.

That was January 21, 2019, and Smith had just had her first panic attack. The following day she went to a clinic for a routine Pap smear. During the procedure, the gynaecologist asked why she hadn’t taken her husband’s name, Lai. The conversation was lighthearted and when she got back to her studio, she reflected on the exchange.

“I thought, ‘OK, so yesterday I had a panic attack but today I had a moment of laughter, so maybe I can encapsulate that funniness. I wonder if I can make a little diorama of the Pap smear?’ And I did,” says Smith.

Rachel Smith with her Matchbox Diary at her studio in Prince Edward. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

She pulled out scissors, crayons and cardboard and recreated the scene in a matchbox. It wasn’t the first time she’d created a story in a tiny box. A few months earlier, a friend’s daughter with autism was upset about not being able to take her therapy-pet turtles back to Australia. So Smith made a few miniature paper turtles and put them in a matchbox for her.