Windows on Pain
One woman asked ‘how are you?’ I said ‘I’m dying.’ ‘That’s nice,’ she said, and walked away.”
–
The Pain Scrolls, Shrinking World – the work
Through the Pain Management Research Institute at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney I was involved in a fundraising campaign where well-known and emerging artists donated works that were auctioned at the Art Gallery of NSW after being exhibited at Carriageworks in Redfern and other venues.
I interviewed a number of chronic pain sufferers and wrote selected quotes by hand on giant scrolls that dropped and coiled from the ceiling at Carriageworks. One of the verbatim quotes that stayed with me was, “Not many people are interested in your pain. One woman asked ‘how are you?’ I said ‘I’m dying.’ ‘That’s nice,’ she said, and walked away.”
Confinement, constraint and contraction were recurrent themes amongst chronic pain sufferers so I also responded with a painting called Shrinking World featuring Lewis Carroll’s Alice, (referencing illustration by John Tenniel) jammed in a room clutching a mask. This picture is inspired by conversations with one patient in particular, who said she felt like Alice disappearing down the rabbit hole with the aperture at the top growing smaller and smaller. “My life is shrinking. I get very angry.
I wear a thousand masks, I disappear into myself.”
Shrinking World 1.8 m X 1.1 m , pastel, ink on Italian canvas.
Chia’s involvement with Windows on Pain was invaluable for her artwork, her artistic input into the show’s composition and her teamwork in the design and touring of the show including hanging the artworks in different gallery spaces.
– Nikki Brown, fund raising manager for the Pain Management Research Institute
Chia’s involvement with Windows on Pain was invaluable for her artwork, her artistic input into the show’s composition and her teamwork in the design and touring of the show including hanging the artworks in different gallery spaces.
– Nikki Brown, fund raising manager for the Pain Management Research Institute