Paul Cade
image, Paul Cade
Sanity for Vanity: page 1 of 2
Colin Hambrook recently saw Paul Cade's breathtaking work and decided to visit the artist in person.
Paul Cade is a visionary artist. I know that's a term which has been over-used - perhaps because of the vagueness of our understanding of what it means to have visions - and definitely because of the number of artists playing up the intent behind what they create. The word is more specific for me as a disabled person. It's one up from hallucinatory - because where hallucinations are a direct result of the mind creating images, as are dreams - visions come from somewhere else.
Paul created Sanity for Vanity as a result of a vision. When he told me the story I was touched by its comical elements in a situation where he had been fighting not for life - but death - after a psychotic episode induced by the prescription of interferon - a drug given to allay the bodies production of cancerous white blood cells.
He was coming closer to his inner thoughts and feelings after several days of fasting and meditation. In his head he said I am lost God. What can I do?
The response he got was: Get a mannikin and cover it in needles.
Cheekily he thought he'd be a bit more specific. Where can I find the manikin?
he asked. In Chadds Department Store in Lowestoft,
came the reply.
He thanked God and when he got back home he went into town to the old fashioned department store. A slightly scared but not unsympathetic woman at the counter told him he'd be welcome to borrow a manniquin, but he couldn't cover it with needles. The voice in spirit came to his aid: I'm Kevin from curtains. Come and see me on the 5th floor.
When Paul found Kevin, sure enough the mannikin was waiting for him in storage.
The sculpture has been exhibited in Phoenix Art Gallery and Sussex Beacons window, both in Brighton. It touches people for different reasons. It has both erotic and horrific qualities. One of the entries in the comments book summed it up: Beautiful and cruel - just like life.
Paul says: Making Sanity for Vanity was about coming to terms with the diagnosis. It made me realize that I had a journey to make as an artist. There is something valuable in communicating artistically what I am going through - for myself and others. There is such a stigma attached to death and dying. I want to concentrate on the positive aspects of our understanding of death.
last updated: 2005-03-01 00:00:00
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tags : visual arts sculpture installation professional development