Four Compositions for John Fare

Recorded in 2005.

John Charles Fare was born in 1936 in Toronto and attended Forest Hill College. In 1959 he moved to London to study architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, but soon left to live in Copenhagen. He was briefly held in a mental health facility for exposing himself in public at performances. After his release, he was re-arrested for gluing objects to a car.

The car's owner, musician and inventor Golni Czervath, did not press charges and befriended Fare. The two developed a robotic operating table with painter Gilbert Andoff. The first performance was a lobotomy on Fare in June 1964. All performances were performed on a Friday.

By the time Fare performed at the Isaacs Gallery in Toronto on 17 September 1968, he "was short one thumb, two fingers, eight toes, one eye, both testicles, and several random patches of skin." The amputated parts were preserved in alcohol. That evening, he had his right hand amputated.

Fare's body was fitted with small microphones, which transmitted his pulse and breathing frequency in a distorted fashion. Fare performed six more shows between 1968 and 1972.

Source: Wikipedia (accessed 06.03.2020)

BBC Radio 4 Today programme stigmatises mental health issues

This morning, BBC Radio 4's Today programme launched a tabloid-style attack on sufferers from mental illness in general and autism in particular
see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7605000/7605701.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7604000/7604920.stm

I lodged a formal complaint along these lines:


".... I was appalled by the fear-mongering way statistics were interpreted on your programme this morning, and the way John Humphreys expressed many of the common prejudices that stigmatise people who happen to be ill. They are members of the public, not criminals who should be feared.

Almost everyone suffers from some kind of mental ill health at some time in their life. Could the Today programme please help inform the public (and John Humphreys in particular) on mental health issues and how the Health Service functions, rather than reinforcing existing myths about mental illness. Thank you."


Maybe they'll take notice if enough people write in. Please forward your e-mail to
todaycomplaints@bbc.co.uk

and to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/



Please pass this onto anyone who may be interested.