REFLECTIONS ON 2023-2024
Even from the perspective of 2025 the events of 2023-4 are difficult to relate. These commence with me receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine as immunity against the global Covid-19 pandemic, only for it to play havoc with my auto-immune system, using M-RNA. The result was my auto-immune system mistook the vaccine for an authentic attack upon the auto-immune system and set about destroying it. This left my toilet bowl full of pitch black liquid. However the situation soon righted itself and I naively assumed a dietary irregularity.
However some months later my symptoms were then misdiagnosed at a public hospital as pancreatic cancer and urgent surgery arranged. It was understood this would be an arthroscopic or pin-hole procedure that would sacrifice my spleen but would only take an hour or two. That turned into around nine hours, entailed copious blood transfusions (when my lungs collapsed) and resulted in permanent damage to my inner ear (balance) and was, as a later recommended expert (with access to all files) concluded “Wow somebody screwed up!” confirming my own suspicions where no biopsy was even contemplated beforehand and no doubt ever seemed to have arisen over alternative diagnosis or explanation for symptoms!
This strikes me as gross incompetence that leaves with something like a third of a pancreas struggling to do the job of a whole.
Still, is this any different from any other self-regulated industry?
The experience obviously fed into my artistic practice bringing new urgency and intimacy to mortal themes. In some ways this was fortunate in others most unfortunate. Apart from adapting to my medical condition, 2024 brought two further difficulties to my practice. The first was that fellow artists, whom I assumed were supporting my efforts to attract gallery representation, were in fact stabbing me in the back, quietly vetoing my appeals. The second was the news (from other dealers) that wealthy artists ('Rich kids') were in fact buying their place in galleries, all but sidelining matters of quality. All in all it was a terrible year.
For an alternative view of the events - there is my prose poem...
