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| Painting by the author | |
TRIVIAL PURSUIT WITH JESUS
Just Another Day in the Ward
See the picture? That's not ACTUALLY Jesus, that's two psychotic inpatients playing Trivial Pursuit with an attendant. And they're beating him easily because they're so smart.
I painted this after I was taken into custody after trying to kill myself during a psychotic episode. That's exactly what they looked like. I called it Institutions Alike, because the hospitals have taken over from the churches, and health is the new religion. The attendant isn't the Jesus character, that's just Johanna, the girl to the right. The other guy is Per. He was very much my friend. Per hasn't seen this painting. Johanna has quit. Michael has seen the painting and he thinks it's really funny. He's the Jesus character. In that picture he's hearing voices and he's in a lot of pain.
The last time I met Per was about eight months ago and it was very sad. He's young and he used to be good looking. And now he's really let himself go. He was really grubby, he looked like a regular psycho. You know, he's gone down the psych spiral and he's gained a lot of weight, the way people do. Michael is doing well though. He controls his psychosis. He always used to sit like that, so I just drew what he looked like. He had long hair too. And they always used to play Trivial Pursuit. Me, I hate Trivial Pursuit. I think it's so boring.
But the inpatients always beat the attendants. Not because the attendants were losing on purpose, but because the inpatients were so much more well read and educated. Same thing with chess.
Some people call it the monkey cage, but I think that's unfair to the attendants. A lot of them can't get any other job. And, this sounds terrible, but some of the most exciting things that will ever happen to them are the patients. They're musicians, lawyers, academics, artists. This was a place for people between 18 and 36, and some really talented musicians passed here, they're releasing albums right now. I bet they're in your magazine too. If you'd just recognise the names from liner notes in the sleeves you'd know, but I won't name names.
INGER INPATIENT
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