Theatre, autopathography and the medicalised self: imaging health from the shadows of illness

The human body is a well-tuned, customised vehicle that we mostly take for granted – until a diagnosis of chronic illness forces a radical turn. In light of such an event, the subject’s experiential journey follows an unknown road, marked by lack of control and disembodiment. As the condition progresses a new physicality emerges, both familiar and ‘other’. And yet both separated selves are bound by the constraints of the illness and its medical mediations, unwelcome intruders which nonetheless deliver powerful conceptual and physical motifs and offer guiderails for the artist. Theatre, autopathography and the medicalised self is a creative research project catalysed by a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 2011. The artist’s interdisciplinary practice has its roots in photography, video, performance, sound and text and methods include documenting, journaling and archiving. Through a range of studio-based strategies, abjection, loss, beauty and order are reframed by the lens, the screen and the page. The prognosis is a subjective and yet visually critical autographic portrait of illness, health and self.