Pictured: Fiona Kearney, Director of the Glucksman Gallery and Fergus Shanahan, Professor of Medicine, UCC, and the Director of the Alimentary Research Centre (APC) discuss the upcoming 'Experience of Illness' Symposium and related Exhibition, 'Living/Loss' which will be hosted by UCC and the Glucksman Gallery on 30 November.
The symposium will explore the interface between medicine and the arts and is open to the public.
Great achievements in modern medicine have enhanced our knowledge and treatment of many diseases, but understanding what it feels like to be sick requires more than technological advances andmedical science.
The facts of disease are objective and readily available, whereas the concept of illness is subjective, less accessible and often neglected.
Although the developed world has been relieved of many scourges,chronic illness - physical and mental - is widespread and increasing in prevalence. Few are spared the experience of illness or can avoid being touched by it, either personally or because of the misfortune of a loved one.
Kindness, compassion and concern for the dignity of those who suffer do not come naturally and need fostering. This is best achieved with some understanding of the human experience of illness.
“This symposium is both timely and timeless”, comments Fergus Shanahan Professor of Medicine at UCC and Director of APC. “Whereas disease is black and white, illness - the experience of disease - is coloured, nuanced by a multitude of variables including personal, social, historic and cultural factors. While science can teach us much about disease”, continues Shanahan, “only the arts and humanities can offer us an understanding of what it feels like to be ill. This symposium will offer an overview of illness as expressed, not only in the visual arts, but also in music, fiction, film, poetry, dialogue and narrative.”
The symposium, which will be opened by RTE’s Morning Ireland broadcaster, Aine Lawlor, has an impressive line-up of high profile national and international speakers. One of the keynote lectures, “The Consequences of Disclosure of Mental Illness”, will be given by American Dr. Kay Jamison, Head of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and author of several works including An Unquiet Mind and Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament. Jamison has written numerous scientific articles about bipolar disorders and has appeared on popular television programmes such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live. Other contributors include David Alpers, Washington University School of Medicine; Jay Clayton, Vanderbilt University; Peter Whorwell and Helen Carruthers, University of Manchester; John F. Deane, poet; Anne Gildea, comedian and writer; Mark Patrick Hederman, Abbot of Glenstal Abbey; Eleanor McEvoy, songwriter and vocalist; Iarla Ó Lionáird, musician and scholar; and Lord David Puttnam of Queensgate, CBE.
The Experience of Illness symposium will be complemented by an inspiring art exhibition at the Glucksman Gallery, UCC. Living/Loss: The Experience of Illness in Art will run from Friday 23 November 2012 until Sunday 10 March 2013 and will feature a number of prominent pieces from renowned international artists. Visitors will be invited to view different perspectives on the experience of illness, from the candid self-portraits of Jo Spence during her cancer treatment to the tender and compassionate portraits of patients by Cecily Brennan, through to tongue-in-cheek pharmaceutical graphics as imagined by Damien Hirst.
Fiona Kearney, Director of the Glucksman Gallery, remarks: “One of the most exciting things a university art gallery can do is to connect the research of our scholars with a wider audience; it has been thrilling to work with Professor Shanahan and his team to explore both the science and art of illness.”
The symposium is open to all and entry is free of charge. However, pre-registration is essential: http://www.ucc.ie/research/apc/content/experienceofillness/