Abstract
This series of self-portraits explores relationships between one’s self and possible genetic and epigenetic sources of illnesses.
Figure 1. The Call Is Coming From Inside My Body
Our organs, responsible for sustaining every function our bodies use to exist, are invisible to us, and they eventually fail us. Anxiety due to this invisibility can lead to a constant hum of thoughts about what could possibly be wrong. An apparatus on the figure’s ear provides pathways to a mind trying to decipher physicians’ words.
This work considers mourning the loss of a healthy body. The figure is pulling itself apart and also revealing a body, a self, and an anguished memory of lost vitality.
Figure 2. I Would Like to Unzip Myself
Figure 3. Should I Cut Out Dairy?
In the history of humanity, now is the safest time to be alive, but despair about potential ailments based on an omnipresent, overwhelming flow of information could befall us.
Figure 5. A Woman in Peril
Fear of our own mortality can be exacerbated by a history of chronic health conditions on both sides of a family, which is why all of these works are imbued with a sense of detached unease with human form.
