Feeble, Precarious, Existence
This piece of work describes my take on the feelings, thoughts and fears of a patient I met two years ago at a Doctor’s Clinic, undergoing critical care in an Intensive Care Unit. This patient was once a doctor, and was now dying of heart disease – something he devoted his life to fighting. It describes how he tries to cope with the element of hope, and goes through stages of denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance that could be related to the Kuber Ross stages of dying.
The image illustrates the patient’s perspective – there is no patient on the bed, this symbolizes the fact that the illness had taken over, the fuzzy figures represent doctors who are loosing the battle against the inevitable. The dim yellows are the candlelights showing the withering hope.
Whole Person Care
It is interesting that there is no patient on the bed, reflecting that once illness has taken over the patient is no more. The use of colour and the hazy lines cleverly portray the emotions that the patient must have been experiencing.
I was really intrigued by the ambiguity of this painting when I first saw it, with the vague outlines of medical staff showing a disconnect, and perhaps reflecting the confusion and hallucinations common in ICU patients. The haziness also makes it seem like time is altered. After reading the context of the image, I think this makes the painting particularly sad- the blurriness perhaps showing the doctors loss of identity and loss of connection to the medical community. Although it is an abstract piece of art, I think overall this painting starkly depicts the conflicting feelings the patient is experiencing, highlighting a poignant loss of hope.
i find it fascinating how the yellow representing hope outline the fuzzy doctors, suggesting that the patients hope is pinned onto the doctors, showing that despite his illness, he still has faith in medicine. The fact that the empty bed means that the illness has taken over suggests that the doctor sees a hospital bed is where you fight disease, and he is no longer fighting it. The painting is reminiscent of a photograph where the shutter has been left open for a long period of time, suggesting that the doctors have perpetually stood there during the course of his illness.
I find this artwork really intriguing as it displays a loss of hope so clearly. The fuzziness of the doctors displays how the patient feels as if they are no longer able to help him. It also gives a sense of timelessness, as if he feels everyday is this same bleak loneliness. The use of dark green in the background also gives the art a cold feel, representing the discomfort and emptiness the patient feels. The lack of colours used reflects how the patient feels as if they are “exsisting” rather than living.
This artwork captures the isolation and despair of a patient in intensive care presenting a bleak picture of the end of life. It is particularly harrowing to observe that the bed is empty, perhaps alluding to events of the not so distant future. It also suggests that not only may the patient have lost all sense of identity amongst the uniform gowns and rows of beds but that the doctors caring for this patient have also failed to treat that patient as an individual, seeing vital signs on the brink of collapse but not a scared and lonely human who was once in their position. The dim figures of the doctors may also speak of their own fear of truly trying to connect with this individual, finding it safer to remain impersonal shadows rather than exposing themselves to their own worst fear.
This piece really resonates with me on a personal level due to family members who have experienced similar conditions. I am particularly intrigued by the fuzzy figures who the artist tells us to be the doctors who cannot do much more for one of their own, as if the patient is separate to the profession they were once a part of. I also interpreted the yellow figures as family members of the dying patient, not only their biological family but also their professional family of other clinicians who feel helpless in the last stages of this doctor’s life, as if he is alone in the the final stages of life.
I found the overall lack of resolution/defined edges of the piece to be very interesting. As the patient was a former doctor, they were likely very familiar with a hospital setting, yet in illness they lose their clarity. This distances themselves from the doctor they were, into the patient they are now. I also found it interesting that the most clear object is the empty hospital bed in the foreground, as in the patient’s illness this is what they have had the most experience with, being confined to bed in later stages of disease. The yellow hope flickering within the medical professionals is impersonal and vague and distancing, and yet still had warm and comforting tones,