May 21st 2010 - October 3rd 2010

The Glass Delusion

City: Sunderland

'The Glass Delusion' was the name given in the late Middle Ages and Baroque times to a form of depression. Sufferers were obsessive, compulsive, driven by irrational fears, and imagined themselves to be made of glass, hence brittle and fragile. So pervasive was the condition that it entered world literature, philosophy and history. Cervantes wrote the novel The Glass Licentiate, Descartes mentions it as a premise to his syllogism I think therefore I am, and Charles VI of France had iron ribs sewn into his clothes to protect himself from breaking. Victims allegedly travelled padded in straw and refused to sit down fearing their body weight would fracture their buttocks.

Contemporary art, artefacts and scientific objects have been brought together to tell the story of human attempts to reconcile the physical and mental worlds. New commissions, video film and provocative sculptures will fascinate all visitors.

www.nationalglasscentre.com

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