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Medium: Mixed Media (Acrylic Cast, Painting, Photography, Steel, Wood)
This bust is not mine, but could be as 1 in 9 women today will have breast
cancer in their lifetime.
Ultimately, I would like to use this piece to raise awareness and funds for
breast cancer research,
of which I am still looking into avenues to achieve this. The piece in the
meantime can be seen
at the Group Show I am participating in Feb-Mar 05. More about the piece
can be found below.
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This
installation piece (mixed media with painting & photography) is created with
my thanks to all brave women whom face and overcome breast cancer.
Throughout
history, the female bust has been celebrated in both art and literature. In
Renaissance times, it was the young and beautiful bust that was portrayed in
painting and sculpture. Today the
most common bust we cast is in acrylic, to bolt a woman to a steel table in
order to provide radiation treatment for cancer.
This is our reality.
The
piece is a mixture of elements, which aim to both examine and celebrate the
reality of cancer treatment and its effects on the human body.
One in 9 women will face this challenge in their lifetime; 1 in 9 women
will have an acrylic cast made of their bust after it has been changed by a
surgical procedure in order to facilitate healing.
The Renaissance is past.
1.
Surgery
2. Chemotherapy
3. Radiation
An
acrylic cast is made for every woman, as we are all unique.
It is necessary to provide the radiologist with exact details on
“where” to aim the radiation, and to keep the person very still during the
course of treatment. It is hand marked by a doctor, the holes cut in exactly the
right places to allow radiation beams to penetrate the cancerous cells.
After
the cast is made, the person is ready for radiation treatment.
The bed is made of steel, and if you are fortunate there may be a single
flannel sheet placed on it for comfort – not much, because of the properties
of radiation. The bed is narrow, no
wider than your shoulders. You are
bolted with a 12V drill to the bed underneath your personal acrylic cast, to
ensure you cannot move as there is no room for error.
You are uncomfortable, cold from the steel bed, and alone.
Photography
for this piece was done by Wendy Hoople. We
specifically wanted the image of the woman to be that of a transparent skin, as
it is one that has been left behind. The fact that it is also torn down the
middle is akin to this. There are
pieces ripped from the image, something true of a person who has gone through
this process, as pieces of you are cut away, burned away, or lost along the way.
This
‘skin’ we left behind on the steel bed, as the person truly metamorphoses
throughout the treatment process, changed along the way.
These are only remaining pieces, reminders.
The
flowers, both in photography and painted, represent the enduring human spirit
that survives this process. Regardless of war, disaster and disease, flowers will
continue to bloom and colour will come back to the world.
Perhaps they are the reminder that we will survive, and we will be
changed – transformed – in the process.
They are also a favourite of my mother.