About Us
Marc Quinn sculpts Lupus Patient
The Lupus Trust was approached by the renowned artist, Marc Quinn, who wanted us to select a lupus patient to be part of his exhibition entitled 'Chemical Life Support'.
Marc is probably most famous for his fifteen foot tall white marble statue - of a naked, pregnant and physically disabled woman, Alison Lapper - which was to be placed on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square and which provoked considerable debate.
The exhibition included several compelling figurative sculptures of people who keep chronic illness at bay with drugs. Each sculpture is cast from polymer wax mixed with the drug that keeps each subject alive. Marc started with a sculpture of his own baby son, Lucas, who suffered from a milk allergy thus the wax has been mixed with a chemically produced milk-free substitute that was used to sustain him. To the viewer, these serene bodies seem very healthy and whole; only the titles hint at the secret that is contained within their very substance of lives that are precarious and fragile.
The 3 other sculptures are: Silivia Petretti - HIV, Nicholas Grogan - Diabetes and Carl Whittaker - Heart Transplant.
Lupus is represented by Kate Hodgkison, 23, who is a patient here at the Louise Coote Lupus Unit, her story can be seen on this site (click to view). Kate was approached by us and asked to take part in the project. Kate said "As soon as I was asked I said yes without hesitation as I will do anything to raise awareness for lupus (Kate really means this - she's already jumped out of a plane for us!!). It was an honour to work with Mark Quinn and really enjoyed my day at his studio. It's very bizarre seeing and exact life-size replica of yourself and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to have taken part in Marc's project. My friends all think the sculpture is amazing and my family are really proud of me for doing it!"
The launch of the exhibition was attended by many famous faces including; Janet Street Porter, Mary McCartney, Tracey Emin and Harry Enfield.
We're really grateful to Kate for agreeing to take part and also to Marc for allowing us to be part of his wonderful exhibition, we are very honoured.
