LONG EDIT + Annotations
Light Bulb: Ideas and creativity Stake: Pressure point, on edge
Egg on the grater: Fragility, discomfort
Discomfort, imminent danger, pain
Ankle pain, CRPS
My right hand is semi paralysed due to CRPS and this image represents that...
Describes the feeling of being on edge, knowing your limbs can stop working at any point in time.
Salt bushes are typically found cliffside around the coast, by placing an egg in the bush I hoped to represent that feeling of being completely on edge.
I have POTs syndrome which causes me to experience blood pooling in my legs, the balloons represent that.
Some days chronic fatigue can make simple tasks such as brushing my teeth difficult at the end of the day - here I place the toothbrush as a sort of trophy, a small achievement or win.
The spoon theory is known throughout the chronic illness community to represent energy levels and fatigue. In this theory you give yourself say 12 spoons a day. Different tasks take up a certain number of spoons. Showering for example takes up 5 for me leaving me with little energy for the rest of the day. In this image I wanted to link this back to the idea of an egg and spoon race.
Ping pong ball on the edge of a falling house. Represents a fragile existence. A sense of impending doom. Like something could go wrong at any moment.
Meant to feel unstable and impermanent.
I often experience quite severe back pain and this image represents those symptoms.
The rubber band's around this sponge represent pain symptoms.
With chronic illness comes a certain level of disconnect. Of cancelled plans, of phone calls that are too hard to make. The phone and spike together represent this.
Waiting for the ball to drop. The hanging ping pong ball represents kind of hanging by a thread in a way.
The guy at the cafe down the road cuts my croissant in half horizontally. That makes me uncomfortable so I thought I would share the love on that one.
The candles in the potato are meant to feel despondent and at a loss. A sense of disappointment.
Mushrooms are known for their neurological properties which is what inspired me to use them. The stacking of them together is meant to represent my faulty nervous system. Each mushroom represents a neutron. Here the web feels just wrong, or confusing, which is representative of my system.
The falling tower follows on from the earlier mushroom images.
This image is simply meant to feel strange, and off-putting. Like something just isn't right.
Lemon: You know the saying 'That car is a bit of a lemon' well I fear my body might be one... That's what the lemon symbolises throughout the work.
There is a heaviness that comes with a body that does not always work. The rock is representative of this.
This image pays tribute to a faulty nervous system. The power cords symbolise that 'faulty wiring' I am told I have.
A similar image to the power cords, however this one is more resembling my faulty collagen.
I used fairy floss for this image to soften the meaning. But it is representative of a brain in distress.
This image links in to my experiences with PMDD and the cyclical nature of that.
When thoughts eat away at you...
This one captures that sense of feeling trapped.
Though it is hard to see, the circle is made from a sanding belt. Against its harsh surface ping pong balls seem to rotate in a forever painful cycle.
The thin threads of string binding these sticks together are symbolic of my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome which affects the quality of the connective tissues holding my joints together.
I have added fruit to this series as a tribute to their use in traditional renaissance still life works. There they were often used as a symbol for a finite timeline, or as a marker for eventual decay and impermanence.
Similarly here, the fruit represents decay and the blocks suffocating it further this meaning.
This one highlights a sense of looming danger. Of something always hanging over your head. A familiar feeling for many I am sure.
This image simply is meant to foster that sense of discomfort and unease from viewers.
When you are unwell, life becomes an ever teetering balancing act that can be impossible to manage.
The egg rolling down the planks of wood is meant to represent a fragile existence. The wood pieces are placed together though in a way that mimics a playground-like setup placing an emphasis on a fragile childhood due to health.
So I mixed up the sayings on this one. It is meant to have the meaning of my plate being full. But well...
The body here is a lemon and the coils are meant to represent the hyper mobile joints and the consuming damage they do.
This image represents perfectionism. The ruler symbolises the need for accuracy and precision in everything I do, whilst the balloon shows the effects of that. It appears suspended, paused but about to burst. An accurate description of what perfectionism can feel like.
Each element in this image is meant to feel fragile, and impermanent.
PMDD affects people in a cyclical manner, and the clock represents that. It hangs suspended mid air, like a barrier always looming above. The plank represents the slippery slope it causes each month. The instability.
The bricks atop of the paintbrush represent a creative block. (You can tell I was running out of ideas here)
