Art, Access and Agency

2021 - Film - Gallery at the Javett, University of Pretoria

Film: Pain under the microscope, revised version, 2018

Situated somewhere between fine art, documentary and talking heads, the film takes a series of connected microscopes as its blue-print, to examine pain from multiple perspectives including interviews with international experts from history, linguistics, pain, medicine, neurobiology and psychology (respectively Profs Joanna Bourke, Elena Semino, Joanna Zakrzewska, Maria Fitzgerald and Amanda Williams) interspersed with patient testimonies (Chandrakant Khoda) and a musical and visual score (Lucie Treacher). The visual imagery derives largely from metaphors co-created with people living with pain, in particular, that of a shadow sandwich, where the material of the metaphor, for example mouldy bread from the sandwich, is placed under the microscope, magnified x 64 and subsequently re-integrated with more recognisable imagery to create a multi-layered and surreal backdrop to the unfolding exploration of pain. Scientific and neuronal images weave their way throughout the more abstract imagery asking ‘what is this thing called pain?’ The film provides no answers but invites viewers to assemble their own meanings out of the immediacy of patient testimonies and the cutting edge science and research presented. The film grew out of the pain: speaking the threshold interdisciplinary project at University College London, click here.

After the screening Deborah Padfield will give a short talk exploring how the work arose followed by a Q & A session.

The Royal Society of Medicine: Explain pain through art, language and movement.

2019 - Royal Society of Medicine

Although healthcare professionals are taught communication skills, little emphasis is put on how explanations are given. A plausible clear explanation is of special importance for patients who have chronic pain which is invisible, subjective and poorly understood.

Through the use of a multidisciplinary team, participants will have the opportunity to enhance their skills at providing meaningful explanations to their patients.

This event will start with a patient describing her experience of obtaining an explanation, and its impact on her ability to manage pain.

A Professor of Linguistics, Professor Elena Semino, will demonstrate the importance of words and metaphors to provide explanations, this will be complimented by Professor Peter Salmon, a health psychologist who works in the field of medically unexplained symptoms.

The distinguished and highly respected Professor Lorimer Mosley, an Australian physiotherapist whose explanation of chronic pain on YouTube and in TED talks are appreciated by thousands of viewers.

Delegates will also be introduced to Dr Deborah Padfield, a Visual Artist who will be showing her film “Pain under a microscope”, which is a culmination of over 10 years worth of work with pain patients. Some of the images created during the project will be used by Pain Medicine Physician, Professor Joanna Zakrzewskato, to illustrate the impact of pain management courses.

To finalise the event Ms Rachel Stovell, Senior Physiotherapist, will facilitate group work to ensure all delegates leave with the tools needed to provide an explanation of chronic pain in a personalised way.

Shadows and Ashes, Sofia, Bulgaria

2018 - The Medical University of Sofia, Bulgaria (MUS)

Pain under the microscope 2018. Padfield & Omand. Film 35 min duration.

Situated somewhere between fine art, documentary and talking heads, the film takes a series of connected microscopes as its blue-print, to examine pain from multiple perspectives including interviews with international experts from history, linguistics, pain, medicine, neurobiology and psychology (respectively Profs Joanna Bourke, Elena Semino, Joanna Zakrzewska, Maria Fitzgerald and Amanda Williams) interspersed with patient testimonies (Chandrakant Khoda) and a musical and visual score (Lucie Treacher). The visual imagery derives largely from metaphors co-created with people living with pain, in particular, that of a shadow sandwich, where the material of the metaphor, for example mouldy bread from the sandwich, is placed under the microscope, magnified x 64 and subsequently re-integrated with more recognisable imagery to create a multi-layered and surreal backdrop to the unfolding exploration of pain. Scientific and neuronal images weave their way throughout the more abstract imagery asking ‘what is this thing called pain?’ The film provides no answers but invites viewers to assemble their own meanings out of the immediacy of patient testimonies and the cutting edge science and research presented. The film grew out of the pain: speaking the threshold interdisciplinary project at University College London, click here.

16th World Congress of Anaesthesiology, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre,, Film Screening, Pain under the Microscope

2016 - Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

Padfield & Omand. Pain under the microscope. Film. \j

2018 . 35 duration.
Situated somewhere between fine art, documentary and talking heads, the film takes a series of connected microscopes as its blue-print, to examine pain from multiple perspectives including interviews with international experts from history, linguistics, pain, medicine, neurobiology and psychology (respectively Profs Joanna Bourke, Elena Semino, Joanna Zakrzewska, Maria Fitzgerald and Amanda Williams) interspersed with patient testimonies (Chandrakant Khoda) and a musical and visual score (Lucie Treacher). The visual imagery derives largely from metaphors co-created with people living with pain, in particular, that of a shadow sandwich, where the material of the metaphor, for example mouldy bread from the sandwich, is placed under the microscope, magnified x 64 and subsequently re-integrated with more recognisable imagery to create a multi-layered and surreal backdrop to the unfolding exploration of pain. Scientific and neuronal images weave their way throughout the more abstract imagery asking ‘what is this thing called pain?’ The film provides no answers but invites viewers to assemble their own meanings out of the immediacy of patient testimonies and the cutting edge science and research presented. The film grew out of the pain: speaking the threshold interdisciplinary project at University College London, click here.

TRANSLATIONS (BODY TALK: WHOSE LANGUAGE?). Heritage Gallery, Greenwich

2016 - Heritage Gallery, University of Greenwich, London

This exhibition brings together Catherine Greenwood’s work on body images with Deborah Padfield’s on metaphors of pain. Translations explores how aspects of visual and verbal language, their form, content and structure can present readers with different ways of seeing, reading, knowing and relating to visual media. It forms part of the Association for Medical Humanities 2016 Conference Body Talk: whose language? at The University of Greenwich. Bringing art together with medicine is not new. The close links between aesthetics and ethics in Western ideals of beauty and morality was written about in Ancient Greek philosophy, but these are closely linked in many cultures and religions. Today, working on what it means to be human and bringing the human back into medicine through patient-centred care presents exciting possibilities for new forms and mergings of art and medicine, through which art can become a form of tool or even a form of treatment.

The exhibition is supported by the Wellcome Trust

Encountering Pain Conference, UCL, Film Screening, Pain under the microscope

2016 - University College London

Pain under the microscope 2018
Situated somewhere between fine art, documentary and talking heads, the film takes a series of connected microscopes as its blue-print, to examine pain from multiple perspectives including interviews with international experts from history, linguistics, pain, medicine, neurobiology and psychology (respectively Profs Joanna Bourke, Elena Semino, Joanna Zakrzewska, Maria Fitzgerald and Amanda Williams) interspersed with patient testimonies (Chandrakant Khoda) and a musical and visual score (Lucie Treacher). The visual imagery derives largely from metaphors co-created with people living with pain, in particular, that of a shadow sandwich, where the material of the metaphor, for example mouldy bread from the sandwich, is placed under the microscope, magnified x 64 and subsequently re-integrated with more recognisable imagery to create a multi-layered and surreal backdrop to the unfolding exploration of pain. Scientific and neuronal images weave their way throughout the more abstract imagery asking ‘what is this thing called pain?’ The film provides no answers but invites viewers to assemble their own meanings out of the immediacy of patient testimonies and the cutting edge science and research presented. The film grew out of the pain: speaking the threshold interdisciplinary project at University College London, click here.

Wellcome Trust, In Pursuit of Pain, Exhibition, Images from Perceptions of Pain and Face2face within solo pop up exhibition for Friday Night Spectacular

2016 - Wellcome Trust

Studio
INSTALLATION
Visualising Pain
19.00–23.00 | DROP IN
It can be surprisingly difficult
to explain your pain to a doctor.
See photographs co-created
by artist Deborah Padfield
and people being treated
for pain at UCLH. By creating
these images, those in pain
retain control of how their pain
is visualised and can have
a more negotiated dialogue
in the consulting room

Pain and its Meanings, the Wellcome Trust, Film Screening, Duet for Pain.

2012 - Wellcome Trust

Duet for Pain
2012

(Duration 12 mins)

Duet for pain is a response to working as artist in residence at UCLH in a facial pain management environment. It explores the construction of identity and narratives of pain juxtaposing two perspectives: those of the pain sufferer and those of the clinician. It focuses on the face as an expression of identity and means of interacting with the outside world asking what happens when that face is itself in pain.

Photofusion SALON/12 - Photograph from Fragile Boundaries series

2012 - Photofusion Gallery

Now in its fourth year, our Annual Members’ Photography Show has undergone a complete makeover. Due to the growing popularity of this event, AMPS is adopting a new salon-style hang, allowing a much larger number of Members to showcase one of their images.

The images exhibited reflect the diversity of work being made by our Members, encompassing all genres from the traditional to the avant garde. Examples of social documentary and classic portraiture can be seen alongside contemporary constructed imagery, still life, and digitally manipulated photography.

This year, 118 photographers have been selected to exhibit on the walls, along with a further 43 presented on a showreel. Many are Members who have been with Photofusion from its inception and have longstanding careers as professional photographers, while others are recent Members and newly emerging in their careers.

Pain Less Exhibition at the Science Museum, London, film screening of Fragmented Lines. Film co-created with adult participatory pain group

2012 - Science Museum, London

Film co-created with adult participatory chronic pain group and with film editor Helen Omand

Mask: Mirror: Membrane Exhibition at the UCLH Street Gallery

2011 - UCLH Street Gallery, London

Here’s one for your diary, an exhibition of images by Deborah Padfield, in collaboration with patients & clinicians at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, entitled Can you see Pain? Anyone who knows Deborah’s work from her previous exhibition and book entitled Perceptions of Pain won’t want to miss this.

http://www.dewilewispublishing.com/PHOTOGRAPHY/Perceptions.html

face2face: What can art bring to a clinical context and medicine to a gallery context? Can an exploration of facial pain
inform our understanding of portraiture and vice versa?

MASK:MIRROR:MEMBRANE is the result of a collaboration with pain specialist Professor Joanna Zakrzewska and facial pain clinicians and patients at UCLH. The images exhibited evolved out of a two-year artist’s residency investigating facial pain and the role photographs can play in its communication. It involved co-creating photographic images with patients that reflected their personal experience of pain.

Chronic pain is invisible, complex, and notoriously difficult to communicate via language. With facial pain, difficulties of communication are exacerbated, as the very ‘canvas’ normally used to express it, is itself in pain. The face becomes either a mask hiding the emotions behind it or a frozen mirror reflecting the projections of others. Difficulties in communicating their experience serve only to increase the isolation, fear and loneliness of sufferers. The work gives visual form to this invisible and subjective experience. With a focus on facial and oral medicine and portraiture, it explores whether images can help us negotiate between different perspectives – how we perceive and what we project onto ‘the other’.

Featuring photographs co-created by Deborah Padfield with patients, the exhibition also includes an original film installation, drawings and photograms resulting from joint workshops with patients and clinicians at the National Portrait Gallery, as well as self-portraits by facial pain sufferers. Context is provided through personal testimonies, medical texts, and artist and patient notes exploring facial pain and the portrait from multiple perspectives.

The project is also developing an image resource in the form of a pack of ‘Pain Cards’ as an innovative communication tool for use within the NHS. Visitors will have a chance to experiment with the cards and are invited to give their responses to them.

The exhibition demonstrates that images can capture aspects of the pain experience difficult to describe in words alone, and elicit new information for both patient and clinician. It explores the means by which aesthetic spaces allow access to other ways of ‘knowing’ illness.
Blog by Dr Ayesha Ahmad for the medhum BMJ about the exhibition which was shown at both the Menier Gallery London and the UCLH Street Gallery London in July 2011

Mask:Mirror:Membrane Exhibition at the Menier Gallery London

2011 - Menier Gallery London

Can you see Pain?
How can an exploration of facial pain inform our understanding of portraiture and vice versa?

MASK:MIRROR:MEMBRANE is the result of a collaboration with pain specialist Professor Joanna Zakrzewska and facial pain clinicians and patients at UCLH. The images exhibited evolved out of a two-year artist's residency investigating facial pain and the role photographs can play in its communication. It involved co-creating photographic images with patients that reflected their personal experience of pain.

Chronic pain is invisible, complex, and notoriously difficult to communicate via language. With facial pain, difficulties of communication are exacerbated, as the very 'canvas' normally used to express it, is itself in pain. The face becomes either a mask hiding the emotions behind it or a frozen mirror reflecting the projections of others. Difficulties in communicating their experience serve only to increase the isolation, fear and loneliness of sufferers. The work gives visual form to this invisible and subjective experience. With a focus on facial and oral medicine and portraiture, it explores whether images can help us negotiate between different perspectives ' how we perceive and what we project onto 'the other'.

Featuring photographs co-created by Deborah Padfield with patients, the exhibition also includes an original film installation, drawings and photograms resulting from joint workshops with patients and clinicians at the National Portrait Gallery, as well as self-portraits by facial pain sufferers. Context is provided through personal testimonies, medical texts, and artist and patient notes exploring facial pain and the portrait from multiple perspectives.

The project is also developing an image resource in the form of a pack of 'Pain Cards' as an innovative communication tool for use within the NHS. Visitors will have a chance to experiment with the cards and are invited to give their responses to them. The exhibition demonstrates that images can capture aspects of the pain experience difficult to describe in words alone, and elicit new information for both patient and clinician. It explores the means by which aesthetic spaces allow access to other ways of 'knowing' illness.

Two evening events accompanying the exhibition will promote discussion of the issues raised: an Artist's Forum on Thursday 7th July at 4.30pm before the opening, and an interdisciplinary discussion with invited panellists on Thursday 14th July at 6.30pm. Some of the participating patients will be present at both events.

Perceptions of Pain Exhibition at Napp Headquarters, Cambridge Science Park

2008 - Napp Headquarters, Cambridge Science Park

Perceptions of Pain
An exhibition about the science and art of the pain Experience

Although we all experience pain, it remains extraordinarily difficult to define or communicate.

‘The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare and Keats to speak for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.’ (Virigina Woolf)

This exhibition shows the result of a Sciart collaboration between Deborah Padfield, Dr Charles Pither and patients from INPUT pain management unit, St Thomas’ Hospital. Chronic pain patients worked with the artist to create photographs which expressed their pain in a visual medium.

The project finding a visual language for pain is a moving and startling collection of images that explores the interface between doctor and patient, photographer and subject, maker and viewer, science and art.

‘I have always found it hard to explain my pain to doctors. You have to explain it so that they can understand it … I have found this really beneficial. It is a wonderful idea’
(participating patient)

Science Museum, London, Pain, Passion, Compassion, Sensibility , photograph from perceptions of pain

2004 - Science Museum, London, UK

Perceptions of Pain at Guy's Hospital, Atrium 1, London, UK

2002 - Atrium 1, Guy's Hospital, London, UK

Perceptions of Pain
An exhibition about the science and art of the pain Experience
Central Hall St Thomas’ Hospital, London
Atrium, Guy’s Hospital, London

Although we all experience pain, it remains extraordinarily difficult to define or communicate.

‘The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare and Keats to speak for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.’ (Virigina Woolf)

This exhibition shows the result of a Sciart collaboration between Deborah Padfield, Dr Charles Pither and patients from INPUT pain management unit, St Thomas’ Hospital. Chronic pain patients worked with the artist to create photographs which expressed their pain in a visual medium.

The project finding a visual language for pain is a moving and startling collection of images that explores the interface between doctor and patient, photographer and subject, maker and viewer, science and art.

‘I have always found it hard to explain my pain to doctors. You have to explain it so that they can understand it … I have found this really beneficial. It is a wonderful idea’
(participating patient).

Funded by:
• The Sciart Consortium
• The Arts Council of England
• Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charitable foundation.

Perceptions of Pain at St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK

2002 - Central Hall, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK

Perceptions of Pain
An exhibition about the science and art of the pain Experience
Central Hall St Thomas’ Hospital, London
Atrium, Guy’s Hospital, London

Although we all experience pain, it remains extraordinarily difficult to define or communicate.

‘The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare and Keats to speak for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.’ (Virigina Woolf)

This exhibition shows the result of a Sciart collaboration between Deborah Padfield, Dr Charles Pither and patients from INPUT pain management unit, St Thomas’ Hospital. Chronic pain patients worked with the artist to create photographs which expressed their pain in a visual medium.

The project finding a visual language for pain is a moving and startling collection of images that explores the interface between doctor and patient, photographer and subject, maker and viewer, science and art.

‘I have always found it hard to explain my pain to doctors. You have to explain it so that they can understand it … I have found this really beneficial. It is a wonderful idea’
(participating patient).

Funded by:
• The Sciart Consortium
• The Arts Council of England
• Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charitable foundation.

Photographs from the series Evolutions, shown at the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery

- Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery

Untold at the SW1 Gallery, London in association with Arts & Minds, Westminster, London, UK

- SW1 Gallery, London, UK

Series of photographic portraits of participants at the Pullman Day Centre, Pimlico, London and photographic work co-created by them within a larger exhibition in association with Arts & Minds, Westminster, London, UK.

A stitch in time, photographs at the Association of Photographers Gallery at their Annual Exhibition, London

- Association of Photographers Gallery, London

Perceptions of Pain photographs within group exhibition for Trans-Art Laboratori, Vic, Barcelona, Catalyst, Reversible Actions Exhibition

- Vic, Barcelona

Photographs from the series face2face and perceptions of Pain at London Pain Consortium’s, Insight, Wellcome Trust Anniversary Exhibition

- Guy's Hospital London

Duet for Pain screening at the National Portrait Gallery, London as part of Facial Likeness

- National Portrait Gallery

Duet for Pain
2011, Revised 2012

(Duration 12 mins)

Duet for pain is a response to working as artist in residence at UCLH in a facial pain management environment. It explores the construction of identity and narratives of pain juxtaposing two perspectives: those of the pain sufferer and those of the clinician. It focuses on the face as an expression of identity and means of interacting with the outside world asking what happens when that face is itself in pain.

Perceptions of Pain at the Sheridan Russell Gallery, London, 2002

- The Sheridan Russell Gallery, London, UK

Perceptions of Pain
An exhibition about the science and art of the pain Experience

Although we all experience pain, it remains extraordinarily difficult to define or communicate.

‘The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare and Keats to speak for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.’ (Virigina Woolf)

This exhibition shows the result of a Sciart collaboration between Deborah Padfield, Dr Charles Pither and patients from INPUT pain management unit, St Thomas’ Hospital. Chronic pain patients worked with the artist to create photographs which expressed their pain in a visual medium.

The project finding a visual language for pain is a moving and startling collection of images that explores the interface between doctor and patient, photographer and subject, maker and viewer, science and art.

‘I have always found it hard to explain my pain to doctors. You have to explain it so that they can understand it … I have found this really beneficial. It is a wonderful idea’
(participating patient).

Funded by:
• The Sciart Consortium
• The Arts Council of England
• Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charitable foundation
• Paintings in Hospitals

Perceptions of Pain at the Royal College of Physicians, London, UK, 2002

- The Royal College of Physicians

Perceptions of Pain
An exhibition about the science and art of the pain Experience

Although we all experience pain, it remains extraordinarily difficult to define or communicate.

‘The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare and Keats to speak for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.’ (Virigina Woolf)

This exhibition shows the result of a Sciart collaboration between Deborah Padfield, Dr Charles Pither and patients from INPUT pain management unit, St Thomas’ Hospital. Chronic pain patients worked with the artist to create photographs which expressed their pain in a visual medium.

The project finding a visual language for pain is a moving and startling collection of images that explores the interface between doctor and patient, photographer and subject, maker and viewer, science and art.

‘I have always found it hard to explain my pain to doctors. You have to explain it so that they can understand it … I have found this really beneficial. It is a wonderful idea’
(participating patient).

Funded by:
• The Sciart Consortium
• The Arts Council of England
• Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charitable foundation
• Paintings in Hospitals

Perceptions of Pain at the Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds, 2004

- Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds, UK

Perceptions of Pain
An exhibition about the science and art of the pain Experience
An Arts Council Funded Tour with accompanying interdisciplinary symposia and events

Although we all experience pain, it remains extraordinarily difficult to define or communicate.

‘The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare and Keats to speak for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.’ (Virigina Woolf)

This exhibition shows the result of a Sciart collaboration between Deborah Padfield, Dr Charles Pither and patients from INPUT pain management unit, St Thomas’ Hospital. Chronic pain patients worked with the artist to create photographs which expressed their pain in a visual medium.

The project finding a visual language for pain is a moving and startling collection of images that explores the interface between doctor and patient, photographer and subject, maker and viewer, science and art.

‘I have always found it hard to explain my pain to doctors. You have to explain it so that they can understand it … I have found this really beneficial. It is a wonderful idea’
(participating patient).

Funded by:
• The Sciart Consortium
• The Arts Council of England
• Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charitable foundation.

Perceptions of Pain at the Gallery, the Great Western Hospital Edinburgh, 2003

- The Gallery, the Great Western Hospital, Edinburgh, UK

Perceptions of Pain
An exhibition about the science and art of the pain Experience
An Arts Council Funded Tour with accompanying interdisciplinary symposia and events

Although we all experience pain, it remains extraordinarily difficult to define or communicate.

‘The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare and Keats to speak for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.’ (Virigina Woolf)

This exhibition shows the result of a Sciart collaboration between Deborah Padfield, Dr Charles Pither and patients from INPUT pain management unit, St Thomas’ Hospital. Chronic pain patients worked with the artist to create photographs which expressed their pain in a visual medium.

The project finding a visual language for pain is a moving and startling collection of images that explores the interface between doctor and patient, photographer and subject, maker and viewer, science and art.

‘I have always found it hard to explain my pain to doctors. You have to explain it so that they can understand it … I have found this really beneficial. It is a wonderful idea’
(participating patient).

Funded by:
• The Sciart Consortium
• The Arts Council of England
• Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charitable foundation.

Perceptions of Pain at the Gallery, Loughborough University, 2003

- The Gallery, the University of Loughboroguh

Perceptions of Pain
An exhibition about the science and art of the pain Experience
An Arts Council Funded Tour with accompanying interdisciplinary symposia and events

Although we all experience pain, it remains extraordinarily difficult to define or communicate.

‘The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare and Keats to speak for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.’ (Virigina Woolf)

This exhibition shows the result of a Sciart collaboration between Deborah Padfield, Dr Charles Pither and patients from INPUT pain management unit, St Thomas’ Hospital. Chronic pain patients worked with the artist to create photographs which expressed their pain in a visual medium.

The project finding a visual language for pain is a moving and startling collection of images that explores the interface between doctor and patient, photographer and subject, maker and viewer, science and art.

‘I have always found it hard to explain my pain to doctors. You have to explain it so that they can understand it … I have found this really beneficial. It is a wonderful idea’
(participating patient).

Funded by:
• The Sciart Consortium
• The Arts Council of England
• Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charitable foundation.

Houston Centre for Photography, USA, Group Exhibition - Inside the Metaphor series exhibited

- Houston Centre for Photography, USA

Image from Inside the Metaphor exhibited.

Inside the Metaphor
2015 - 2018

Inside the metaphor is a series of images emerging out of my interest in exploring a visual language with which to communicate pain, and a long held fascination with how we look and how we interpret what we see through different lenses. I experimented with putting the metaphoric material under the microscope – quite literally - for example extracts of moulding apples and strawberries, crumbs of rotting bread, drops of water/ice or newspaper ink etc. I have then integrated these microscopic images with the original metaphoric ones. The result is a series of new works which don’t so much seek to communicate pain as to question how we see it and what it is we see when we hear of another’s pain. There is a memory of an individual’s pain left within each image but it has been mediated in a way much of our communication is mediated by the time it is received, but here the transformation is made explicit.
I am intrigued by how we understand metaphor and wanted to experiment with putting the metaphors depicted in the images under the microscope - literally. I took samples of materials from these metaphors such as extracts of rotting apples, mouldy bread, ice, strawberries etc. and placed them between glass slides and photographed them at magnification x 64. The
magnified images revealed different structures and relations within the material used –metaphor.
I then integrated these literal depictions of the inner structure of the metaphoric material with the original imaginative representations of the same metaphors and created a series of new photographs called Inside the Metaphor. One of the aims of this series is to ask what we see when we look intensely, what are meaningful ways of looking, do we misrepresent when we try to reduce subjective experience such as pain to something objectifiable and evidencable?

Perceptions of Pain at Novartis Headquarters, Basel, Switzerland

- Novartis Headquarters

Perceptions of Pain
An exhibition about the science and art of the pain Experience

Although we all experience pain, it remains extraordinarily difficult to define or communicate.

‘The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare and Keats to speak for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.’ (Virigina Woolf)

This exhibition shows the result of a Sciart collaboration between Deborah Padfield, Dr Charles Pither and patients from INPUT pain management unit, St Thomas’ Hospital. Chronic pain patients worked with the artist to create photographs which expressed their pain in a visual medium.

The project finding a visual language for pain is a moving and startling collection of images that explores the interface between doctor and patient, photographer and subject, maker and viewer, science and art.

‘I have always found it hard to explain my pain to doctors. You have to explain it so that they can understand it … I have found this really beneficial. It is a wonderful idea’
(participating patient).

Expressions of Pain and Self-directed studies, International Symposium, Osaka University, Japan

- Osaka University, Japan