Pictures of Pain

What's it all about when a work of art deals with pain? What sense is there in an artist deliberately hurting himself or making pictures of painful subjects?

Does it Hurt?
- representation

Pictures of pain and aching, suffering and death have been created at least as long as pictures of the pursuit of divinity, happiness, motherhood or beauty. In Western art, one of the most important pictorial themes is Christ stretched out on the Cross. If the artists of today create pictures about pain, there is nothing new about it. In the pictures depicting martyrs, the pain has been ennobled: pain is seen as a sign of the martyr's true faith which endures and suffers all. 'The correct' reality is the reality of God's spirit, the material world is fleeting and secondary. In the same way as physical suffering. This way of thinking reflects an idealistic concept of reality absorbed by the Christian faith from Platonism. Christ's Passion is different from the martyr's suffering. He suffers as the Saviour of all mankind in the role of God made flesh. It is a noble suffering upon which depends the fate of the world. In other cultures, pain is also sometimes presented as a material necessity on the path to a spiritual and genuine connection with god or the universe.

The self-portraits of Frida Kahlo can somehow be compared to the Christian depictions of pain. The viewers' experience is powerfully affected by the knowledge that the iron bar, which penetrated the pelvis of the beautiful, young artist as the result of a traffic accident, caused her to suffer for the rest of her life. The poor artist suffered on behalf of herself, her artist husband, the Mexican people, as well as for her art and oppressed women throughout the world. What remains are the pictures of the martyr-artist.

The confrontation of pain presented in ennobled art is traditionally seen as noticeably different from the pain depicted, for example, in entertainment.Art does not, unlike some computer games, merely present endless pictures of pain and violence, but goes a step further and deals with the feelings connected to pain - pain becomes the subject of the art. In this way, it has tried to get viewers to look inside themselves and, thus, become a more understanding person.

It Hurts!
- presentation: real pain

Throughout time there have been people who live on behalf of others in human society. These scapegoats, through their own lives, give other members of society the chance to experience real pain without having to feel it.Such a role has been played by shamans or beggar monks, flagellants, fakirs, escape artists or a bohemian artist dying of tuberculosis on the Left Bank of the Seine. The use of real pain as artistic material is found particularly amongst performance artists. Today, religion alone is not sufficient to justify the use of pain. Scapegoats can also be found not just in sports and art, but also in the name of entertainment: for example, on TV shows volunteers place themselves in dangerous situations.

When an artist experiences something on behalf of others, he may expose himself to danger or pain, not being content with merely painting pictures of flayed martyrs. Chris Burden had himself shot in the left arm. 'I didn't try to commit suicide, I'm not a sadomasochist nor am I certifiably insane,' he has stated. It may also feel unreasonable that a top athlete subjects himself to life-threatening danger in order to achieve top result.

The thought of feeling pain troubles many people. Pain is to be avoided. Artists can show others what a feeling of pain or real fear of death looks like. They can also tell how it feels. In using pain as an element of art, the intention might be to shock the viewer - but without destructive consequences. If the viewer examines his feelings either alone or with someone, he may be better able to face pain in his own life. At least he knows how the sight of pain or fear has earlier affected him.

The use of real pain as an artistic element appeals to the viewer's empathy and, through their own body, to identify: 'Ow! That must hurt!', which is completely different from looking at a painting in which Judith severs Holofernes' head. It is just paint on a canvas and it is not even certain if the story is true. Prodding the viewer to compare what he sees with his own experiences can be the beginning of working through the psychological process.

Painful?
- the presentation and processing of symbolic pain

A work of art can also handle pain in its entirety without pictures of pain or without the artist suffering pain in front of the audience. Berlinde de Bruyckere's Untitled is composed of three different-sized beds covered with layers of blankets with holes cut through them. The work easily gives rise tothoughts of suffocation, family violence and atrocities swept under the carpet, which happens in homes. Yet there is not a single picture of pain.

Tony Oursler's Choking doll is really a cloth doll onto which are projected the facial contortions of the actor. It looks like it really hurts and not just physically. Tiina Ketara made a doll in her own image (You and I) which lies on the ground. It looks like something is wrong even though there are no bruises or blood. If the viewer tries to help the doll up, it begins to chat about its life and finally bursts into song. The current work of Rafael Wardi, an artist who has also done valuable work as a pioneer in Finnish art therapy, revolves strongly around the feelings caused by his wife's serious illness.

If one considers why an artist handles painful subjects, it is easy to think that 'maybe things are quite difficult for him, because he is an artist and has certainly experienced all kinds of things'. Not all art, however, is necessarily autobiographical or expressionist, nor is every self-agonising artist a sadomasochist. Instead of thinking 'That is really sick!' when seeing pain in art, I have begun to ask who is it that is sick? Maybe the artist shows the type of sickness and its symptoms. Even though I can not bear to look at all the pain, I sometimes really have to see and experience it, even if it is just at the dentist's. And when will art reach its the limits? How far can it go? It is perhaps more necessary to ask how far I am ready to carry my convictions, how far I would be ready to go.

Minna Turtiainen
The writer is a Helsinki art historian and Kiasma guide