retrograde reclamation is a series of illuminated painted plastic constructions and video. The work references photo documentation of my endometriosis excision surgery in June of 2018. The plastic skins are hung away from the wall, pushed away from the floor and lit from behind by strips of LED lights. Video footage from the surgery is shown alongside the pieces on a wall mounted digital device.  The light emitted from the video and the luminosity of the constructions echo each other.  The juxtaposition of two vastly different representations of equally personal imagery – one digital and literal yet formless, the other intentionally formed abstract constructions consisting of plastic, mulberry paper, liquid acrylic, and other media – becomes a deep reclamation of myself.

My practice draws from personal experience with endometriosis and the institution of women’s health.  My journey with endometriosis is littered with visual documentation of my body revealing the incredible ways in which it successfully functions as well as the imperfections and mutations that are not visible on the surface. Living with it can only be done by accepting the fact that I have limited control over my own state of being.  

retrograde reclamation repossesses institutional scientific imagery and makes it my own.  It is a tangible representation of my pain, fatigue, frustration, hopelessness, and perseverance. The skins are a mixture of my emotions, memories, organs, blood, and flesh.  They are neither good nor bad; they are simply real.  I want to share my experience as an example of what is so commonly shared by other women, but rarely recognized or spoken about: the pain of unseen illness, the normalization of that pain, and the institutionalized ignorance of our bodies. Mine is only one example among so many medical misunderstandings not spoken of.  There is so much silent strife.