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Welcome to the online exhibition of Ouch!
You are invited to preview Ouch! - a scroll down showcase of artworks, text and short films, brought to you by 44AD artspace and Associate artists; in collaboration with the Centre of Pain Research who are celebrating ten years of study.
Ouch! draws on research themes explored by the Bath Centre for Pain Research. Providing a platform from which the nature of pain, its impact and how it is expressed, can be represented through art.
Special thanks are extended to all of the participating artists and Dr. Ed Keogh from the Centre of Pain Research.
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About the Bath Centre for Pain Research
The Bath Centre for Pain Research is based at the University of Bath. It comprises a team of interdisciplinary researchers who explore how pain affects us, and how we live our lives, as well as looking at the best ways of helping people learn how to live with pain.
They explore different types of pain, from the everyday aches and niggles, to more persistent, chronic painful conditions which can result in long-term disability. The research covers a wide range of different themes, from how people think and feel about their pain, through to how the wider social environment (e.g., family, healthcare, work settings) can impact on how pain is perceived, expressed, and responded to.
Their goal is to develop a better understanding the nature of pain, and what factors contribute to how we experience it. This in turn will place us in a better position to more effectively manage it when it becomes problematic.
More information about the work conducted by the Bath Centre for Pain Research can be found here
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Catalogue of Ouch! Artworks and Films
Please scroll down to view the exhibition catalogue of artworks and films, on display at 44AD artspace from 29 September - 10 October 2021.
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THE COMFORT RUG
Stephen Magrath
Woven Wool
45cm x 45cm
£350
Being a sufferer of chronic headaches, I find that meditative repetitive artwork is a very therapeutic distraction. Recently I have experimented with weaving as a type of drawing.
This rug was calming to make and the wool a joy to work with. The completed mandala design suggests order and wholeness whilst also being comforting to the touch.
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Warried (sic)
Jeanette Weston
Lead Soldiers, Acrylic, Milliner’s Head and Pins
35cm (h) x 24cm (w) x 25cm (d)
£2450
The more we worry the more we seem to enlarge symptoms of ailments.
We appear to experience a more pronounced level of pain when we are in an anxious state. Is this physical, psychological or both?
A long lasting state of anxiety can be very hindering and trip us up on many levels.
Our head is a permanent battlefield where our bodily functions are controlled and our reality is arranged.
How do we keep this worry under control, especially in the world of now?
I like to think of it as a war on a battlefield where the winner will write the history whether we like it or not.
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Warried (sic)
A Film by Jeanette Weston
A short film about how, why and for what reason the sculpture Warried (sic) exists. Jeanette Weston, the artist behind it, explains.
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THE RIPPLE EFFECT
Simon Taylor
Diptych
Kodachrome Metallic Print
27cm x 41cm (image) each
29.7cm x 42cm (print size) each
£95 each
This work explores the complexity of pain and how it creates a ripple effect from the nerves to the brain. These signals merge, overlay, and blur into one explosion, ouch!
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And the teardrops hurt like thorns
Sybille Hennig
Ink and Watercolour
SOLD
Often, as in the accompanying picture, my drawings and paintings are the result of an experience. In this case, it is pain that finds precipitation in a visual image.
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Vitality-Mortality 5
Barbara Ash
Acrylic on Canvas
£600 (framed)
Taken from the Vitality-Mortality series – these works look at the emotional dynamics of coping with physical challenge and how the human spirit survives in the throes of physical frailty and pain.
This image is taken from an old photo of me dressed as the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland for a school fancy dress contest with an overhanging neurone. Figures are juxtaposed against backdrops of, often seemingly beautiful, but ultimately damaging diseased cells; lurking elements that can attack the body and wage war; reminders of our own physicality and vulnerability.
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FLOORED
living with chronic pain and frayed hopes
Nicole Colbert
Textiles Art Installation (in progress)
Although often seeming counterintuitive, I move my body into these yoga postures whilst feeling increased pain. This daily practice is the best physiotherapy I have found for my Ankylosing Spondylitis. I have created these yoga prayer flags to represent the continual effort I put in and the hope I have for continued mobility.
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FLOORED
A Film by Nicole Colbert
This film looks at how a reinterpretation of Tibetan prayer flags address my everyday aches and pains
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Homage to Artemisia. The Hand of the Artist
Rosemary Cassidy Buswell
Mixed Media
£270
This canvas aims to depict the very real agony and suffering of inflicted pain by torture.
Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian painter of the early 17th century, who was raped at the age of 17. During an eight month trial brought against the perpetrator Agostino Tassi, by her father, Artemisia endured physical torture ordered by the court to try and make her confess she was telling lies. The method used was the ‘sibille’, a series of cords wrapped around her fingers, and gradually tightened…… Such was her strength of character that she would not give in, and her cries of “e vero, e vero, e vero.” - “It’s true, it’s true, it’s true" finally convinced the court that she was innocent, and Tassi was charged.
One can only imagine at her pain, and her wrecked hands, those of an artist. It’s incredible she recovered from such cruelty, and went on to become a famous painter in her day.
I used my own hand to make a template for a stencil, and painted the background in the primary colours she so often used. The cords are made from embroidery thread, and the beads representing drops of blood are feminine references to her womanhood and her torment.
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Homage to Frida Kahlo. Bodice Bandage
Rosemary Cassidy Buswell
Mixed Media
£650
This piece of work is a homage to the painter Frida Kahlo, who was in a horrific trolley bus accident when she was 18 years old. Her spine was seriously injured when the handrail of the bus seared through her body. She was in constant pain, and obliged to wear plaster cast corsets for the rest of her life.
This bodice sculpture was modelled on my own torso using plaster bandage. I wanted it to look like a bodice, so included eyelets and lacing, the ends of which are red, with beads, to denote drops of blood and suffering.
Frida regularly painted her corset casts, decorating them with birds and animals, flowers and scraps of fabric, but I preferred to leave this one plain, in order to look at it and imagine what she was thinking, and might have painted onto it as she lay in her hospital bed.
Her life's work is a tribute to her strength of character, as she continued to paint despite all the odds against her.
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The Calling
Catherine Beale
Watercolour on Wooden Panel
63cm x 63cm
£1300
I painted this watercolour two years ago. The portrait was taken from earlier sittings of a local girl who I had drawn and painted before.
This time I wanted to capture her in the clothes from her day job as a carer working for a local firm. During the sitting she explained her work to me - its great rewards and great constraints.
The gloves remember the personal care that she gives and the watch represents the time constraints that she works under. I altered her uniform to a blue that gives a nod to the robes of the Virgin Mary in early oil paintings and seated her on a “throne” from a more domestic setting.
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No Words
Viv Meadows
Intaglio Print
25cm x 19cm (unframed image)
£75
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Injury
Viv Meadows
Collage
£40
Half way through lockdown, following a stressful time caring for a family member, I returned home and tripped and fell sustaining an injury that left me immobilised for a number of weeks.
This is a spontaneous impression of the pain and frustration of double jeopardy with an element of humour
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Nocturnal Cramp
Mike Rennie
Mixed Media Assemblage
l sometimes suffer from night cramp and its hell for 15 minutes or so... and afterwards l laugh at my shouting and writhing antics to shift it.
So this piece emerged as a contained but grim experience, physical but thankfully short lived.
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Nobody Came
Mark Masters
Oil on Canvas (framed)
73.5cm x 48cm
£450
In my painting ‘Nobody Came,’ I was attempting to examine the concept of human pain, not only on a physical level, but on a deep emotional one too.
The main subject is a heavily abstracted image of Christ, whose elongated body hangs motionless and quiet from the cross. The empty background is more so symbolic of the inner void that he must have felt at the time of passing.
Not only is there the pain of the physical self through the torture of crucifixion, but the mental anguish of being left alone to die without any company or comfort. The mental pain of being left to die by one’s self must outweigh the physical by all costs. This painting also, alludes to our present social situation and of course, the pandemic, where we have witnessed the same ordeal and suffering of our loved ones being left to die on the own in the ICU facilities without their families and loved ones around them.
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wear&tear
Paul Hollin
Charcoal and pastel on paper with Permanent Marker
68cm x 88cm
Not for sale
I first experienced proper back pain around 18 years ago - something ‘went' while playing tennis, encouraged by years spent sitting at an office desk. It has limited me ever since, and though things are ok on a day-to-day basis but every now and then it ‘goes’, with severe pain for a couple of days. Standing is very difficult, and more than once I’ve had to drag myself out of bed and along the floor to somehow clamber onto the loo. I suppose this is why I’ve remembered various quotes on the human spine.
A note to those who haven’t had back pain - to keep your discs in decent knick, stretch your spine regularly (toe-touching and arching both back and sidewards) and keep your core muscles active. Stand and walk as much as possible. If you do have back issues or are concerned they are coming, get yourself Sarah Key’s Back Sufferers' Bible - it explains all.
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Music as Medicine
Broose Dickinson
Resin, Phosphorescent Pigment and Pill Box
20m x 4cm x 3cm
£150
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Adrenaline Rush
Paul Bianchi
Spray Paint on Canvas
60cm x 100cm
£95
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Perceptions of Pain
Jo Barber
Coloured Pencil on Museum Board
50.8 cm x 81.3 cm (unframed)
58.8 cm x 89.3 cm (framed)
£475
Our perception of pain is more than just a physical sensation; it has cognitive, emotional and social components. The sound of the dentist's drill is one of the sounds most commonly associated with pain and it causes fear for many people. The sound of the drill and the perception of pain are inextricably linked so that those who respond worse to the sound will actually experience greater pain.
This drawing gives a visual representation of the sound of the drill to allow people to encounter it in a new way and experience a range of unaccustomed responses
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Standing Tall (Red Hot Poker)
Gaynor Leverett-Jaques
Oil on Canvas Board
60cm x 60cm (framed)
£495
This was painted in direct response to the “Ouch” brief. It’s about the dichotomy of stepping out of the darkness, standing tall, being upright, showing up, bright and strong whilst feeling the shooting red hot fire of pain throughout the body. Oftentimes those who feel the most pain hide it best. Dignified and really rather marvellous.
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HEADACHE
Beryl Desmond
Collage and Mixed Media
£190
This piece of art symbolises the treatment of pain rather than the portrayal of pain itself.
Headache invites reflection on the science involved in the discovery of pain relief. By focusing on the common headache, I offer a visual representation of some of the available remedies which have evolved from years of medical research
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Oucheron
David Dixon
Acrylic on Canvas Board
66cm x 23cm (framed)
£125
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P _2020
A Film by David Dixon
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Box Tc : 104 "Pain Signature"
Melzack's Neuromatrix: A Maquette for 'Ouch!'
Robert Lee
Found Objects and Mixed Media
21cm x 19.5cm x 7.5cm
£95
A small 'found' faux hardwood drawer, repaired, treated, modified and used to contain an assemblage/collage of a measuring instrument and two prints from brain imaging studies.
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Box Vy : 99 "Pain Perceived"
Bad Marriage Sandals; A Projection of 'Pain Caused'
Robert Lee
Found Objects and Mixed Media
33cm x 27.5cm x 18.5cm
SOLD
A pair of 'found' heeled sandals in a reclaimed French wine crate initially made as a response to a set of five prose poems 'Investigation of Past Shoes' from a 2016 collection by Vahni Capildeo, 'Measures of Expatriation'.
It was subsequently modified in a response to an invitation from 44AD and the Centre of Pain Research at the University of Bath.
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Box Tb : 104 "Ingenuous Pain"
The Doctor Discovers Pain on a Journey to St Petersburg
Robert Lee
Found Objects and Mixed Media
21 m x 19.5cm x 7.5cm
£175
A small 'found' hardwood drawer, used to contain a simple assemblage of objects and fabric provoked by a particular text within the novel 'Ingenuous Pain' by Andrew Miller - Sceptre, 1997, which evokes the life of a person unable to experience the pain of injury.
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Saba Head
Sam Bell
Carrara Marble, with Pebble Eyes from the Ligurian Sea in Italy
Blu Pigmento use in the Eyes and the Cranium of the Head
£400
I made this piece specifically with the exhibition in mind. Carved in Italy in the last month, where I also collected the pebbles for the eyes and the blue pigment.
Saba is an ancient tradition relating back perhaps 2000 years to a region that is now known as the Yemen. I have updated this powerful ancient sculpting style, which was used in funereal contexts originally, and with the use of sea pebbles and pigment sought to evoke a state of transition, of change, perhaps evoking a sense of the lived moment and its beauty, even in distress.
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Saba head
A Film by Sam Bell
The Saba heads of Ancient Saba, an area now part of the Yemen, belonged to the funerary tradition of the people.
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44AD is kindly supported by:
 
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