Distinctive Works Prize winner: A discussion between Frank Bongiorno and Vic McEwan

2023 Winner: Vic McEwan for ‘Face to Face: The New Normal’

The panel selected Vic’s work due to its ‘distinctiveness’, the cross over between HASS and medical science together with the significant, beautiful and tangible outcomes of the project.

“Face to Face: The New Normal” evolved through four years of artistic research with patients experiencing facial nerve paralysis due to conditions like cancer, brain tumours and Bell’s Palsy. It explored the intersection of medical science and the arts, addressing human experiences of illness, trauma and identity.

The project was delivered by Vic McEwan as part of his PhD. PhD supervisors were Dr Claire Hooker, Dr Susan Coulson and Dr Paul Dwyer

This work is distinctive because it is the first time an artist has been accepted into the PhD program at the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, potentially setting a precedent nationwide. The artistic process was undertaken at The Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, a cancer research hospital (Sydney, NSW), specifically at the Sydney Facial Nerve Clinic. Here, for the first ever time, a contemporary artist became an integral part of the clinical team, working alongside multi-disciplinary specialists and employing artistic methods to contribute to patient care. Instead of adopting the role of an arts-therapist, this project explored the value of open-ended, experimental contemporary arts practice. Facial Nerve Paralysis profoundly impacts individual identity, leading to high rates of depression and significant social stigmatisation. Patients often express that they encounter substantial social and psychological impacts resulting from their condition, and that these issues are often overlooked in conventional biomedical encounters. This project not only advanced the concept of “socially engaged arts practice” as an impactful form of care giving, but also validated it as a legitimate form of art-making. It presented 15 artworks in a three month exhibition in 2022 at the Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery (and an earlier development period at the Tate Liverpool in the UK). During this time, it showed immense benefits to patients and medical professionals who engaged with it, while also encouraging general audiences to explore their own complex responses to facial difference, discrimination, and vulnerability. The success of the research outputs have led to an invitation being made to Vic McEwan to become an ongoing member of the Sydney Facial Nerve Clinic team. This is an extraordinary development in that it is recognition of the immense potential that open-ended, non defined, creative activity can have on the patient experience.