David Kary

THE PATIENT : THE ARTIST AS A MEDICAL SUBJECT @ UNSW GALLERIES PADDINGTON

Featured image – John A. Douglas’ Circle Of Fire.

Billed as a “painfully beautiful and unlovely” exhibition exploring contemporary artists responses to illness, disease and even impending death, THE PATIENT : THE ARTIST AS A MEDICAL SUBJECT is  currently running at the UNSW Galleries (formerly the COFA Building), corner Greens Road and Oxford streets, Paddington, until 6th August.

This current exhibition definitely fits into the UNSW Galleries guidelines which are to ‘fosters and advances research and discourse around the pressing issues of our times. Exhibition projects that draw on knowledge and research from a range of disciplines – such as art, medicine and science – have the capacity to impart and investigate new approaches to understanding the fluid and rapidly evolving 21st century society in which we live.”

The participating artists are Ingrid Bachmann (Canada), John A Douglas (Australia), Brenton Heath-Kerr (Aus), Carol Jerrems (Aus), Eugenie Lee (Korea/Aus), David McDiarmid (Aus), Helen Pynor (Aus/UK), Jo Spence (UK), ORLAN (France), John Wynne (UK) & Tim Wainwright (Aus/UK), Bob Flanagan & Sheree Rose (US), and Guy Ben-Ary (US/Aus) with Nathan Thompson, Andrew Fitch, Douglas Bakkum, Stuart Hodgetts, Mike Edel. The exhibition has been very well curated by the highly experienced Bec Dean.

Bec Dean, the Curator of THE PATIENT who spent over two years getting the exhibition together.
Bec Dean, the Curator of THE PATIENT who spent over two years getting the exhibition together. Image by Ben Apfelbaum.
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Brenton Heath-Kerr
South Korean/Australian artist Eugenie Lee.
South Korean/Australian artist Eugenie Lee. Image by Ben Apfelbaum.
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Eugenie Lee’s ‘chronic pain’ installation.
Orlan. 7th Surgery. Video performance titled Omnipresence 1993.
Orlan. 7th Surgery. Video performance titled Omnipresence 1993.

Eugenie Lee’s work was fascinating in the way that it explored the world  around chronic, unremitting pain, a world which is unfortunately the fate that befalls some people within the community. It is necessary to make a time with the gallery to explore the chamber:- https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/seeing-is-believing-interactive-performance-participation-tickets-25424598659?err=29

The exhibition features a prominent video installation by John Douglas.  Until he received the kidney transplant Douglas was on a dialysis machine for eleven hours a day, thereby feeling alienated from society. The video features him performing in various parts of the world. John Douglas appears before a performance of his in the ruins of one of the oldest medical schools in the world in Turkmenistan.

John Douglas in front of his video installation. Image by Ben Apfelbaum.
John Douglas in front of his video installation. Image by Ben Apfelbaum.
In the college cafe John Douglas spends time collaborating on one of his upcoming projects with an electronic engineer whereby lights diodes will be placed on various parts of his body to create a stimulating visual experience.
In the college cafe John Douglas spends time collaborating on one of his upcoming projects with an electronic engineer whereby lights diodes will be placed on various parts of his body to create a stimulating visual experience. Image by Ben Apfelbaum.

Highly recommended, with the exhibition providing plenty of food for thought and reflection, THE PATIENT : THE ARTIST AS A MEDICAL SUBJECT is available for viewing Tuesdays to Saturdays 10am to 5pm. Phone 89360888.