Multimedia
A somewhat new love, mixing materials to create installations such as the ones below has become a favourite, particularly to create shock and disbelief.
The Placenta
One of my all time favourite creations, The Placenta is made from polymer clay, and utilises glue and food dye to give the deep red, thick blood its consistency. As a midwife I found myself fascinated by this ephemeral organ, that feeds new life and yet is the root of most pregnancy complications. While I knew others would find this work perhaps confronting or gory, I can't help but see the beauty in the normally discarded harbinger of life, a part of birth we are so eager to ignore. In other cultures the placenta is treated with more reverence, returned to the country of the birth giver and buried, rejoining life with land. This resonates with me; something so complex, still not well understood and beautiful ending up in medical waste bin seems sad somehow. This work places the organ centrestage, where no one is able to ignore it anymore.
OUCH!
This installation, made of recycled materials, represents an abstracted uterus, floating ominously above the viewer. The uterus is patched together with staples, a reference to the medicalisation of the endometriosis-stricken body when undergoing multiple procedures such as laparoscopy. The flashing red light appears to squeeze the uterus internally, referencing the debilitating pain associated with the condition. The different materials patched together are reminiscent of the patches of endometrial tissue forming, growing and destroying inside the body. This work hurts, it confronts and asks us all to see exactly what is normally invisible to the public eyes. Diagnosed with endometriosis at 16 years old, this work is deeply personal, and continues a common theme in my work.
Do you believe me yet?
This artwork comprises of many, many ultrasound and diagnostic operation images from my journey to an endometriosis diagnosis. My story is a rare one. I was diagnosed at just 16 years old, unusually young to receive the diagnosis, a sad truth because of course millions of women's pain goes ignored for far, far longer. Of course my story was still one of perseverance, going through many doctors, drugs, days off school and tears before I finally found a doctor who would believe me. This is the story told in this work, an all to relatable tale for women in our healthcare system, fighting to be taken seriously, sometimes not getting real answers until it is too late. The red writing is messy, violent and emotive. This isn't a pretty illness and this isn't a pretty artwork. There are red clusters of beading embroidered on the letters, a reference to the lesions of tissue growing while we wait for answers to our pain. This work tells anyone with endometriosis that they aren't alone, and that is truly the saddest part.
Peak-a-Boob 1 & 2
As a lover of women, the power and beauty of their bodies is particularly interesting to me. Explored in these more playful works, the viewer comes eye to eye (literally) with a woman's chest in one work, and is asked to pull back the curtain from the woman's chest in the other. These engaging, strange works aim to honour the joy and fun of loving and living within the female form.
