Art Review: Paul Ryan, Rebound
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- Author:
Christina Sanderson, MyVillage
Art Review: Paul Ryan, Rebound
October 16, 2020
HIV is still a highly sensitive topic and a subject about which the general public are remarkably ignorant and frequently avoid addressing. Stephen Fry noted this fact in his recent television series HIV And Me in which he poignantly explored what life is like with the HIV virus today.
At the recently opened and extremely impressive Wellcome Collection (which incidentally holds one of the world’s greatest libraries of the study and progress of medicine), contemporary artist Paul Ryan’s current exhibition, ‘Rebound’, explores the changing perceptions of HIV in Britain. Starting from 1987, as the first clear information about HIV emerged, Ryan’s show follows perceptions to the present day when successful treatments for the virus have been established.
The artist has filled sketch books with his drawings and thoughts since he was fifteen years old and they are a remarkable documentation of his life’s experiences. For the exhibition he has selected pages from his sketch books over the last twenty years displaying them in chronological order. The entries reveal his experience of looking after, learning from and grieving for those close to him who have suffered from HIV and AIDS. By highlighting relevant pages, the pages become ‘rebound’, presenting a highly engaging narrative about the disease. The title, ‘rebound’, also refers to those HIV sufferers who have made recoveries from the illness, resuming their lives.
The drawings are moving and very intimate to the point that one almost feels an intruder into someone’s very private world. Yet despite this deeply personal perspective of HIV, the exhibition is extremely instructive in a broad social sense, no doubt representative of many peoples’ experience of the virus. The drawings are frequently sad, yet hope is also present.
Whether or not HIV has had any direct effect on your life, this exhibition is an instructive and moving illustration of a condition about which we are still in 2007, remarkably ignorant.
You can see Paul Ryan: Rebound at the Wellcome Collection until October 28. Check the official website for details
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