A recording of the public talk held at QUT on 12 October 2023.

In this discussion Creative Practice Artist in Residence, Vic McEwan, discusses his cross disciplinary practice that positions experimental and contemporary arts practice as a provider of care in a clinical setting.  As well as sharing the outcomes and processes of his work, Vic explored the ethical, administrative, clinical and creative challenges he encountered working across medical and creative disciplines.

Vic was the first artist to be accepted into an arts-practice led PhD in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, working with the Sydney Facial Nerve Clinic. While in residence at the Sydney Facial Nerve Clinic, Vic worked on the front lines of clinical treatment with medical staff and patients experiencing facial nerve paralysis, examining what impact an open-ended contemporary art process might have within the clinical environment. 

Vic’s discusses the outcomes of his PhD research which included an exhibition of works in development at Tate Liverpool,  a major exhibition outcome at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, titled Face to Face: The New Normal, and a forum bringing together practitioners in arts and health as an experiential exploration of caring. Vic’s work highlights the potential for medical science and the arts to come together to nurture the human dimensions of illness and trauma, exploring issues of identity and the self through the human face.