“Blood, Icons, Clouds: Living With Diabetes”
“Blood, Icons, Clouds: Living With Diabetes” is an art exhibit by David Mark Bradley opening Thursday, October 25th at Van der Plas Gallery in the South Street Seaport in downtown Manhattan, NY.
“After pricking my finger to test my blood sugar level, I have to wipe the blood somewhere. One day, I smeared it on an ink drawing. I was shocked how pretty, and on fire the red was. What cadmium red aspires to be,” says David Bradley.
The “Blood” portion of the show is a dialogue with diabetes, inspired by how Type I diabetics test their blood sugar levels many times daily in an often sweaty, anxious dance to determine whether or not they are “normal.” The more “in control” one is with healthy levels, the more that person outwits death. And rediscovers hope.
Issues raised by “Blood” include:
- For a person with diabetes, what does hope feel like at the end of one’s fingertips?
- Confronting mortality, rust, fears of death, needles, dismemberment.
- Recycling of bio-medical waste products, keeping syringes out of landfills.
- “Tikun:” turning negative energy to good, as in creating art that reaches for immortality.
- And in today’s workplace, what does “paid for in blood” mean?
In Prufrock, T.S. Eliot said that he “measures out his life in teaspoons.” Bradley replies, “So I measure out my life in syringes?”
Through drawings, paintings, sculpture and words, Bradley’s work explores storytelling from both abstract and figural perspectives. Diabetes, Catholic mysticism, the Kabbalah, and dreams are sources of inspiration.
For Bradley, the “Icons” represent thinking about what the symbols of our culture mean and the meaning we all bring to them.
The “Clouds” started as a contemplation of the “pillar of fire” that the Israelites followed in their exodus from Egypt. Seeing like a child, the “Clouds” are about what can be.
The show runs through November 28th.
