Change Minds Online 2023: Henry Peardon, 'Love, Fear and Each Other' by Finn
Henry Peardon, photograph taken while a patient at Bethlem between 1890 and 1892
'Love, Fear and Each Other'
'Love, Fear and Each Other'
‘Love, Fear and Each Other’
The paintings ‘Love, Fear and Each Other’, actually emerged from printing the first one while it was still wet onto another sheet of paper and then quickly developing that outline into another portrait. If you look at the heart/chest portion of each you can see they originate from each other. They came out of nowhere (hence the printer paper) and I find them very compelling. I sense them now as speaking to the multiple dialogues between fear and love that I have felt running through my experience of the Change Minds project and within Henry’s story.
The one captures tremendous pain and fear. It is anguish - an open wound and the hardness that has formed around it. Borne heavily and silently. The severity of the mind in survival. Total isolation. Defensive structure.
And then there is Love. Not silenced, but quiet. Curious, wise, gentle. Capable of mystery.
Click here to read more on Henry's life story by Finn.
