Rebound
11-28 October 2007
Combining sketches, diary notes and wall drawings, Paul Ryan's exhibition illuminated the changing perception of HIV in London over a period of 20 years; from 1986, when the first clear information about HIV emerged, to 2006, when successful treatment regimes had been established.
The title 'Rebound' referred to the experience of the declining health and hopes of those affected by HIV, which hit a low point in the mid 1990s, before rebounding in recent times to improvements in health and a greater optimism for the future.
This 20-year period was represented by a chronological display of the artist's notes and sketchbooks showing pages and entries about the experience of caring for, grieving for, and sometimes seeing the return to health of those close to him.
Larger images redrawn from selected pages from the sketchbooks were also exhibited as well as a specially commissioned piece drawn directly onto the glass wall of the gallery.
Paul Ryan was born in Leicester in 1968. He lives and works in London. This will be his first solo exhibition in central London since 'Drawing for Survival' at the Imperial War Museum in 2005/6.
