Fourteen Expressions of Pain or Partner with Tethered Spinal Cord Syndrome

Pencil on Paper, 139cm x 117cm, 2020 - 21

The work depicts the artist’s partner who was diagnosed with the neurological disorder Tethered Spinal Cord Syndrome in 2011. A rare condition, symptoms include numbness, tremors and chronic pain throughout the body.

The series was executed over a recent two-year period, as the condition worsens, focusing on episodes of extreme pain. 

On one level, the work is a portrait of an individual battling with a long term condition and the difficulty of coping with its management but, on another, it focuses on the helplessness of watching a person you are close to, suffer.