2008 Woodie Awards
Healing power of "Faces"
Lauren Johnson
Issue date: 9/22/05 Section: News
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Center at 10 Boylston Place. The waiting room is designed for comfort with its walls painted warm yellow, soft lamps and potted plants arranged to induce a calming effect. Those who visit may sign the guest book but they are not scheduled to see a doctor themselves. They come to learn the stories of others.
The clinic is the Huret and Spector Gallery and the exhibit is Saving Faces, a showcase of before and after portraits of persons with severe facial deformities and the individual transformation processes each undergo through reconstructive surgery.
"Everyone is so sensitive about the way they look and whether or not they measure up to the images presented in the media," said Robert Fleming, Emerson's assistant director of Access Services, who was responsible for bringing the collection to Emerson. "This exhibit will make you say, 'Hey I'm pretty fortunate, there could be a lot more worse things to worry about.'"
The exhibit is the collaborative effort between British oral and maxillofacial surgeon Iain Hutchison and Mark Gilbert, an acclaimed painter from Glasgow, Scotland. Working together, both surgeon and artist aim to explore ways in which art can be used to assist one's healing process.
Patients come to Hutchison to correct disfigurements such as a growth that protrudes from the brow and blinds an eye, or a jawbone that does not grow with the rest of the face and develops into a severely skewed mouth. Others have been diagnosed with cancer, with treatment that involved the removal of a left cheek or portion of the skull. Because these individuals look so different from society's "norm," they are often socially withdrawn and suffer from depression.
After brainstorming different ways to aid the psychological healing process as well as the physical, Hutchison and the Facial Surgery Research Foundation decided to recruit an artist-in-residence who would get to know the patients as intimately as the surgeon and paint portraits capturing their emotions throughout treatment, sometimes while even on the operating table. The resulting pieces reveal how far each patient has come along during treatment, but more importantly they boost the patient's idea of self-worth because their face can also serve as a model for fine art.
Several pieces have been displayed throughout the United Kingdom, including at the National Portrait Gallery and Royal College of Surgeons in London. Emerson College is the first North American venue to showcase the pieces, where they will be displayed through the month of September.
When Fleming learned that some pieces were depictions of the actual operation, with the patient's facial structure exposed beneath the surgeon's light, he began to wonder if the exhibit would be too unsettling.
"When I heard about the exhibit, my first thought was 'hmm, is this something we really want to see?" Fleming said. "But when the paintings arrived and I opened up the first crate, I was so amazed by the quality of work and Gilbert's ability to not only capture the appearance of his subjects but their individual characters as well. He really got under their skin."
According to Emerson gallery guard Alexander a-Zaslow double check this by phone, that may just be some lame facebook thing he did, a senior film major, the exhibit has attracted a steady crowd of faculty and students, often drawing audible gasps from guests. He does not believe, however, that visitors come out of sheer shock value.
"I think the shock might bring some people in but if you understand what the exhibit is about then you'll understand that it's not here for the shock, and the purpose is not to exploit the patients," he said. "It is a positive exhibit."
Gilbert's portraits are all oil paintings and most are relatively simple, consisting of just a select number of colors and solid backgrounds. The colors he does use, however, range in shade and tone to create an accurate map of his subject's complexion when applied to canvas. He often uses thick brush strokes, making the pieces feel somewhat abstract, but he clearly captures the expressions of his subjects and pays attention to details such as eyebrows and lashes, to the point of including a stray hair in some pieces.
The Huret Spector Gallery is specifically set up to look like a clinic, with visitors first entering a mock waiting room. The exhibit is portioned into sections, with paintings of a particular subject arranged next to one another so viewers can see the transformations through treatment. Biographies are placed next to the paintings so visitors can understand what each patient suffered from and how Hutchinson treated them.
"This is the kind of thing most people feel uncomfortable with, but an exhibit such as this will get people talking about the issue of people living with deformities," said Timothy Edgar, director of Emerson's Health Communication Program. "We can deal with these issues when we have a dialogue going, and that's definitely a positive."
The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders is using the exhibit as part of a day-long event called "Exploring the Healing Power of Art," which will look at the various ways creative expression such as theater and poetry can be used in conjunction with traditional medical treatment. The event will feature a roundtable discussion with Hutchison and Gilbert and is set to take place on Sept. 23. In the meantime, the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders plans to use the art exhibit as a teaching tool for the students in its program who are getting ready to pursue clinical careers and will need to feel comfortable communicating with people with disabilities.
"Our students study this, but anyone can be moved by these paintings," said Sandy Cohn Thau, director of clinical education. "This exhibit will contribute to a heightened sensitivity towards [physical] impairments but it can also be relatable to anyone who has suffered from some type of impairment and overcame it."