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Saving Faces from one artist to another
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An artist and a plastic surgeon who rebuilds faces scarred
by cancer have produced a unique art form that’s therapeutic
for patients, writes Peter Gruner
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Mark Gilbert, left, and Iain Hutchinson
Mazeeda Begum, five, is a little Bangladeshi girl from Tower
Hamlets with the ‘Mona Lisa’ smile. She had a
malignant tumour on the right side of her face when she
was one. She’s now 7 and doing well.
Henry de Lotbiniere, a barrister from Islington, died on
October 1, 2002, aged 57. He defied disfigurement from cancer,
continued working, and astonished all who met him with his
pleasure in being alive. He had a succession of 14 operations
over 15 years and had most of his face removed and reconstructed.
Consultant surgeon Iain Hutchinson said: “He embodies
immense power but also appears relaxed with a certain insouciance.
It’s as though his disfigurement and all the trauma
he has gone through have been nothing to him.”
Henry Ekpe and son Jerry are the subjects in this father
and son portrait. Henry is a Nigerian psychiatric nurse
who had a malignant cancer of the face. He underwent a 23-hour
operation and had all the right side of his face removed.
But he survived and to celebrate he wanted to be painted
with his son. He is now a charge nurse at Hillingdon hospital.
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IN a society obsessed with perfect facial looks an exhibition
is opening next Tuesday which aims to celebrate, empower and bring
dignity back into the lives of those who live with real disfigurement.
While women – and more recently men – today spend many
thousands of pounds on often frivolous cosmetic surgery, Belsize
Park consultant Iain Hutchinson, 56, based at St Bartholomew’s
and the Royal London hospitals, works rebuilding faces ravaged
by disease, injury or physical attack.
His extraordinary work in mending damaged faces is the focus of
the Saving Faces Art Project exhibition, staged at the Hunterian
Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn
Fields.
The brave and groundbreaking exhibition will feature portraits
of patients painted before, sometimes during, and after surgery,
by highly acclaimed Holloway artist Mark Gilbert, 35.
Consultant Mr Hutchinson, a great believer in the power of art
to engage and transform, established the Saving Faces Art Project
in 1999, funded from a small legacy following the death of his
mother, Dr Martha Redlich.
The project created an artist-in-residence within Iain’s
surgical department, as he hoped that it would illustrate in a
publicly accessible way, what is possible with modern facial surgery,
and show that people with facial disability are able to enjoy
happy, successful and fulfilled lives.
The aim is to give the artist the opportunity to paint these unique
faces as they progressed through their surgical and emotional
journey. It is felt that sitting for and seeing their portraits
has a cathartic effect, allowing patients to come to terms more
rapidly with their altered appearance.
Iain said: “The patients will often use Mark as a counsellor,
and they talk over their problems and even ask him to explain
what went on during the operation. They use the paintings of themselves
as a means of coping with what they have gone through.
“For example, there’s a man who was beaten up with baseball
bat who keeps on his wall at home a painting of his battered face
before he had surgery.
“The paintings empower the patients and make them feel strong.
The paintings explain what they’ve been through and they
can help new patients come to terms, in a gentle way, with what
they too will be going through.”
The effect on the public when the exhibition has gone on tour
has been quite startling. While visitors to normal art exhibitions
pass through fairly rapidly, people visiting Saving Faces spend
hours just studying the paintings and the accompanying stories
of the patients. When it was at the National Portrait Gallery,
alongside an exhibition of celebrities including Kate Moss and
Naomi Campbell, people wrote in the comments book that the patients
were the “really beautiful people” rather than the celebrities
The charity is now developing schemes to bring school children
into the Royal London Hospital at Whitechapel to spend time with
the patients.
Artist Mark has found that children are often less judgmental
and more able to accept facial disfigurement than adults. “People
with disfigurements will often suffer from a variety of reactions
from the public,” he says. “Some members of the public
can’t look the patients in the eye and research has suggested
that people with disfigurements can be regarded as less trustworthy
than those with a normal face. It’s all to do with instant
perceptions. But children, once they have got over the initial
shock, can be a lot more accepting.
“We are trying to get funding for the project in which children
would sit with patients about to undergo facial surgery, possibly
sketch or paint them and write poetry about them,” he added.
You can find out more about the Saving Faces Art Project and contribute
to the Facial Surgery Research Foundation: Saving Faces at www.savingfaces.co.uk.
• Saving Faces: A series of Paintings by Mark Gilbert, at
the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, 35-43 Lincoln’s
Inn Fields. From Tuesday March 15 to June. Admission free.
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