Brain sculptures created by leading artists including Tracey Emin and David Bailey are expected to raise thousands of pounds for research into Parkinson’s disease when they are auctioned on Wednesday.
Fifteen works have been created for the charity auction, Me, My Brain and I, by artists including Gavin Turk, who were asked to reflect what their brain means to them. Some of the artists have been affected by Parkinson’s.
The sculptures are estimated to sell for between £2,000 and £20,000 each at the online auction at Christie’s in London, which is supported by the Auction Collective.
Emin’s sculpture is titled You Fuck My Brains Out Every Time, while street artist D*Face has created an ice-cream brain called Brain Freeze.
Alex Echo, an American-born abstract artist who has raised more than $1.2m (£1m) for charity by selling his works, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2020 after experiencing symptoms for seven years.
He said he hoped Tremor, his multicoloured brain sculpture created with spray paint, would be “a visual representation of what it’s like to live with Parkinson’s. It’s been difficult, but when I’m doing art, time disappears. Parkinson’s disappears. Worries disappear. Art saves my life every day and has for 42 years.”
In an article for the Parkinson’s UK magazine, Echo said his diagnosis came as a shock and led him to be “full of self-pity”.
But it had been “wonderful to be introduced to the huge community of people who are battling something really quite debilitating”.
Echo said Parkinson’s had slowed down his painting career: “Five years ago I used to paint 40 paintings a month, now I’m down to 10. But truthfully, I think my paintings are better now because I take them more seriously.”
Schoony, the theatrical effects artist, made a series of life-sized fabricated brains for artists to use as a blank canvas.
Dion Kitson’s sculpture, Football Brain, is a cast resin brain inside a football mounted on a wooden base. Hayden Kays placed his brain model inside a wooden casket with an engraved brass plaque, calling it Brain Dead.
Paul Jackson-Clark, director of fundraising and engagement at Parkinson’s UK, said the artists’ brain creations were “beautiful, thought-provoking, and moving”.
He added: “Me, My Brain and I invites us all to consider our own brain, to visualise it as the source of all the things that make us ‘us’.
“Our brains curate our lives, on the one hand, acting as unique libraries, holding memories, experiences and skills, while on the other powering supercomputer-powered curiosity, creativity and innovation.”
Parkinson’s is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world, and about 145,000 people in the UK have the condition. The disease has more than 40 symptoms, from tremor and pain to depression and anxiety. Some are treatable, but there is no cure.
