Penny Andrea: archive

Archival material, acquired to support the acquisition of Penny Andrea's film 'locks & keys, water, trees', which is also held at Wellcome Collection. Penny's film relates to her experiences of being diagnosed with a brain tumour and her subsequent treatment and recovery.

1. Pre-surgery OCT scans from Specsavers and a CT scan from York Hospital

2. Discharge notes following some operations, and letters from the Neurosurgeon and Ophthalmologist

3. Screenshots of the film, ‘locks & keys, water, trees’

4. Short trailer for the film, ‘locks & keys, water, trees’

5. Posters designed in collaboration with Illustrator Rita Sus

6. Closed captions in English and German, translated by Luzie Meyer

7. Early rough video sketches/installations: Coincidence .m4v, PDF’s for Coincidence, To live forever, eastern promises.

The film documents 'locks & keys, water, trees' documents Penny Andrea's personal experience of brain injury using the universal language of drawing. Consisting almost entirely of scanned drawings from Penny’s archive, the work was produced as a personal therapeutic project in the aftermath of brain surgeries and infection; a way to understand and come to terms with what had happened. The title of the video, ‘locks & keys, water, trees’ refers to recurring motifs in Pennyls drawings as the seemingly disparate symptoms intensified pre diagnosis, and recalls the Speech Therapy exercises that aimed to restore naturalistic speech patterns after surgery. Penny narrates her lived experience and discusses how after her diagnosis and operation to remove the tumour she then decides to go back through her sketch books and look for clues as to how long she had been experiencing symptoms, the moment where she might be able to see that she was unwell. She notices and increase in minor illness and interest in superstition. She notices recurring characters like the goddess of time. When language starts to come back to her, she writes words, but doesn't know what they mean. As time goes on there’s hope and recovery. She keeps trying to draw horses and copying pictures of them convinced she’s found a way out. And then there is the eventual realisation that things will never quite be the same again that she will always have to live differently.

2019-2021

88 files

Information provided by Penny Andrea, and correct as of May 2023:

"I was born in Coventry in 1990, and attended The Ruskin School of Drawing (2008-11) and de Ateliers, Amsterdam (2011-2013). My work consists of a daily sketchbook practice which underpins original scripts and videos, both live action and animated, from short films to feature length experiments. Things came to a head personally and professionally in 2019 when I was diagnosed with a large brain tumour that had been growing since early childhood (a central neurocytoma). The extended treatment and rehabilitation, though traumatic, has given me insights and materials to understand my past work and envision a path forward. I am currently an Associate Artist at Clod Ensemble."

Copyright retained by artist; all rights reserved license granted to Wellcome.

This collection is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Requests to view uncatalogued material are considered on a case by case basis. Please contact collections@wellcomecollection.org for more details.