umbrella-schizophrene
1986
76 x 101 cm
Oil on Canvas
The image of a head, blindfolded and gagged, with the mind exposed stands as a powerful metaphor for schizophrenia. As many sufferers from the condition will testify they are a prisoners of their condition which keeps them apart from society and bound up with their own troubles. This is a form of bondage and this was the title which Bryan gave to this series of paintings. The sufferer is without a voice and what he sees is disturbingly affected by his own mind. This expereince is very difficult to communicate, the emotional and conceptual upheavals are invisble to the outside observer.
Again the bondaged head makes this point while at the same time attempting,by imaginative imagery to speak for those who have no voice and show what cannot be seen.
The paintings are complex and detailed and in order for the individual images to be studied they have been presented seperately. So in "Umbrella Schizophrene" opposite the ocean liner, wave and the piano keys stand as image for music. Love and desire are represented by women as nails being driven into the centre of the mind and then spinning downwards as though on a wheel. In the an open field a child's rocking horse stands abandoned.
These images are often quite small but worth studying. The landscape behind the heads is based on the places around Bedford, especially the River Ouse where Bryan often walked.
The image of a head, blindfolded and gagged, with the mind exposed stands as a powerful metaphor for schizophrenia. As many sufferers from the condition will testify they are a prisoners of their condition which keeps them apart from society and bound up with their own troubles. This is a form of bondage and this was the title which Bryan gave to this series of paintings. The sufferer is without a voice and what he sees is disturbingly affected by his own mind. This expereince is very difficult to communicate, the emotional and conceptual upheavals are invisble to the outside observer.
Again the bondaged head makes this point while at the same time attempting,by imaginative imagery to speak for those who have no voice and show what cannot be seen.
The paintings are complex and detailed and in order for the individual images to be studied they have been presented seperately. So in "Umbrella Schizophrene" opposite the ocean liner, wave and the piano keys stand as image for music. Love and desire are represented by women as nails being driven into the centre of the mind and then spinning downwards as though on a wheel. In the an open field a child's rocking horse stands abandoned.
These images are often quite small but worth studying. The landscape behind the heads is based on the places around Bedford, especially the River Ouse where Bryan often walked.
