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Lost souls, fishbowls By Mark Brown How
I wish, how I wish you were here.
Edward Kienholz created a painfully evocative sculpture between 1964 and 1966. "The State Hospital" is a gloomy 8 by 12-foot work that makes a statement about the dehumanized existence of inmates in institutions for the mentally ill. The dark piece depicts two poor wretched inmates -- with fishbowls for heads! -- sleeping in similar poses on their sides, one above the other in a steel double-bunk bed. They're bound to the cold steel rail with leather straps around their wrists. The man on top is encircled by a cartoonish neon "thought-balloon" emanating from the head of the man below -- that is, we actually see a representation of one man, prisoner of his own internal nightmare. I think Roger Waters may have seen this sculpture, and it could have given rise to his lyrics about two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl.
Syd Barrett succumbed (in some part) to the pressure of being confined and exposed in a fishbowl of celebrity. Syd's image was distorted in the eyes of his fans, as things in a fishbowl appear to be distorted. He also saw a distorted world through that lens. It brings to mind Storm Thorgerson's art for the 1995 "Wish You Were Here (live)" single with two people looking through fishbowls, causing them to look like the anguished "Pink" masks in The Wall film.
Mark Brown is a guest contributor to Spare Bricks. |
