Three Songs on Pain Light and Time - ACE441.2

PAIN Sickle cells under a microscope. Man walking beside field of sunflowers. Caption: "Donald Rodney is an artist with Sickle Cell Anaemia." Donald Rodney in a wheelchair in his studio. His VO says that he is in constant pain; his work is hindered because there are things he can’t do as a result. Rodney talks about not being able to stand for long and being unable to carry canvases as he could when he was a student. Man in sunflower field holding large photograph of Rodney as a boy. Rodney’s VO explains that his joints are slowly breaking down. He thinks that in the black community, and in the art world, people with disabilities become "partially invisible". The avant garde community can make those people feel less like outsiders as well as enable exploration of "the bizarre nature of … sexuality, masculinity and race". Black Man Public Enemy (1992); The House That Jack Built (1988); Middle Passage (1984); Self Portrait as Clinton McCurbin (1988); Untitled (1987); Untitled (1988). Sonia Boyce, Artist, challenges the idea that male artists deal with "universal themes" while women concern themselves with more "personal" subjects, saying that men and women have influenced each other’s practices. Addressing Rodney, she points to the drawing, The Voyage of My Father (1987), as being "very personal … and quite challenging". Britannia Hospital III (1988). Rodney with book; his VO says that Boyce had introduced him to the work of Frida Kahlo who, though crippled, was "a highly political artist", using images of her disability as metaphors for the crippling of her culture. Marlene Smith, Artist, talks to Rodney about the importance of his humour and irony. VO over How the West Was Won II (1983); Deaf Dumb & Blind Self Portraits (1983). Sunflowers. Rodney’s VO talking about the difficulty of turning "the experience of pain into art". Britannia Hospital II (1988) and Self Portrait (1991). His VO over Trophies of Empire (1993) suggests that he would have become a sportsman if he had not become ill. Sickle cells.