Sian Davey portrait of Gifford [1]

Made:
2018-2020

Portrait of Gifford 1, by Siân Davey, 2020. Gifford stands against a yellow background in denim shirt and jeans, white trainers. His right hand is in his pocket, his left hanging loose, right leg slightly forward. This is one of two portraits of Gifford who speaks in the accompanying audio about his experience of mental health, the challenges of the stigma associated with it, and the support of his family. Each sitter was asked to chose three words to describe themselves. Gifford chose brother, son, and chef.

One of a set of 33 prints commissioned for Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries from significant British photographer Siân Davey. Within one set of 21 for ‘Medicine and Bodies’, members of the participation project ‘When medicine defines what’s ‘normal’’ shaped the choice of sitters and style of portraits to encourage discussion around the themes of diagnosis and medical labelling, and their impact on lives and perceptions of normality. Versions of the portraits have been specially created for the 25-year life span of the Medicine galleries, either as life-size physical portraits, or as digital images to accompany audio discussions. These archival portrait prints of each work have been produced specially for the museum art collection by Davey.

Both sets of prints reflect the aspirations of the ‘When medicine defines what’s normal’ participants to show the varied personalities of sitters. Each person is represented with a variety of poses and expressions, some with props, and against background colours carefully chosen with the participants to work with the wider gallery palette. Some sitters chose to be photographed with family members, whose voices also appear in the oral histories. Some sitters appear with assistive technologies but are not defined by them. Davey’s portraits question what is a healthy or a ‘normal’ body, highlight how medicine shapes, impacts and intersects with the lives of individuals and perceptions of normality, and provoke reflection about the existing collections.

Details

Category:
Art
Object Number:
2021-180
Materials:
paper (fibre product) and ink
Measurements:
overall (original): 787 mm x 638 mm
type:
photographs