Voids, Blobs, and Bodies: Representing Care and Chronic Illness in the Gallery

Abstract

The body of work explored in this paper depicts care routines connected to lessons from chronic illness: care for ourselves (skincare, massage) and care for each other (gathering, community, touch). I represent these care routines in large, gestural drawings, paintings, interactive sculptures, and delicate monotypes. Broadly, the work looks at chronic illness, showing the daily gamut of rest, (inter-)dependence, melodrama, varied physical sensations, vulnerabilities, and connections formed alongside my lived experience of autoimmunity. Through material exploration with loose weave canvas, bedsheets, table linens, furniture, rounded substrates, cotton gauze, and molding paste, I consider the painting as an object with intimate knowledge of the human body.