{"id":1272,"date":"2019-03-07T16:29:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T16:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/?p=1272"},"modified":"2019-03-07T16:29:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T16:29:34","slug":"medication-as-a-protective-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/medication-as-a-protective-shield\/","title":{"rendered":"Medication as a protective shield"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I began collecting the used packets on the second anniversary of my transplant, as a reminder of how fragile our grasp on life is. Without my medication I cannot survive, and so it acts as a ‘protective shield’ …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Extracts from Brian Keeley’s website<\/a> (2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commentary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Artist Brian Keeley required a heart transplant following a catastrophic cardiac event in 2013. Brian\u2019s work graphically illustrates that the transplant is not a cure, but a new chapter with ongoing treatment in the form of the medication load a transplant patient receives and their changed outlook on self and life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian speaking about his work and experience of receiving a heart transplant;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The self portrait ‘Renaissance’ (pictured above) shows my body from the inside, as opposed to the recognisable likenesses we see when artists generally portray the ‘outside’ surface. Since my transplant, I have had a variety of MRI and other medical scans, and I find the whole idea, and images themselves, totally awe-inspiring. Although the experts use these images for clinical use, I find them very beautiful, thought-provoking, and emotionally moving. I have been learning more about the way that the technology of today allows us to actually see my new heart beating within me. I share this heart with its previous owner, and this inspires me to create artwork which explores this very profound and personal relationship. <\/p>

This piece also records one year of my new post-transplant life, represented by all of the empty packets from medication I have used. I began collecting the used packets on the second anniversary of my transplant, as a reminder of how fragile our grasp on life is. Without my medication I cannot survive, and so it acts as a ‘protective shield’ against organ rejection. <\/p>

The way I have depicted the life-size image of my body references Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Da Vinci was an artist with a fascination for the medical and anatomical functions of the human body – at a time when the very idea of heart transplantation – and of creating images from inside the body – would have been unthinkable. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Brian spent months in ITU and hospital and the NHS staff that helped keep him alive were the subject of a series of portraits he painted during his initial recovery. This work formed an exhibition \u2018 The Shared Heart\u2019 in 2015. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian’s art has been exhibited on several occasions in Aberdeen including in the University of Aberdeen ‘Body Matters’ exhibition,<\/a> as part of ‘Being and Becoming’ exhibition <\/a>in the School of Education, and in a solo show at Robert Gordon University’s School of Life Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More info<\/h3>\n\n\n\n