‘The Takotsubo’

蛸壺

A few years ago, I discovered the 'Takotsubo', a cardiomyopathy also called "The broken-Heart Syndrome".
It is a cardiac sideration that manifests itself after a strong emotional shock; often the loss of a loved one, a break-up, an immense stress or a serious accident.
It is manifested by symptoms such as shortness of breath, severe chest pain, palpitations and loss of consciousness. The person's state of alert triggers a hormonal cascade that causes the heart to no longer contract but to balloon. This ballooning of the ventricle creates the shape of an octopus trapped in an amphora and inspired its name (蛸壺) Takotsubo to Japanese interns and cardiologists who discovered it in 1977.
This disease is one of the few physiological examples that could associate the heart-organ with feelings. It affects mostly women, more prone to intense stress.

In addition to its psychosomatic dimension, its association with a tool for hunting an animal brings an interesting analysis of entrapment, of feeling narrowed.

This is how my serie of paintings 'Takotsubo I', 'Tabokstubo serie' was born, where the abstract shapes evoke the shapes of the heart affected by this cardiomyopathy found on MRIs when the left ventricle swells and fails to pump blood properly.