Luna’s Curse, Janet Shaw-Russell
Four bodice and skirt sewing patterns are pinned together to create a full dress. On it, in coloured pencil, the ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus are drawn, including adhesions from endometriosis.
Title: Luna’s Curse
Artist: Janet Shaw-Russell
Date: 2015
Medium/Material: Drawing
Dimensions: 106 cm x 116 cm
Form/Genre: Drawing
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Endometriosis; Perseverance; Uterus; Pain
Artist Statement:
Luna’s Curse embodies Janet Shaw-Russell’s lived experience as a woman with monthly menstrual pain and as a patient with endometriosis.
In 2012, drawn to translucent materials, she began drawing anatomy in graphite and coloured pencil on the delicate tissue of sewing patterns
This trajectory harkens back to Shaw-Russell’s family history. Her father had been a medical doctor, and her mother had been a home economics graduate. Both had passed away - her father from lung cancer at 55, having never smoked, and her mother from leukemia at 66.
The resulting series grew to become a solo show called This Fragile Dwelling Place, exhibited at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon in 2015. She examined our untenable belief in permanence in an ephemeral world.
For Shaw-Russell, sewing pattern tissue has visceral qualities. She draws on this vulnerable material, and it doesn’t tear. It, like the body, is a symbol of resilience.
She pinned together four bodice and skirt pieces from Vogue’s sewing pattern V8181 to become her drawing surface. As each sewing pin pierces the tissue, she remembers the incapacitation, the physical pain and emotional toll each menstrual monthly cycle took on her body.
As Shaw-Russell draws ovaries, fallopian tubes and a uterus covered with adhesions, she recounts her numerous doctor's appointments. She recalls with thanks her two children’s births.
In her forties, Shaw-Russell received a definitive diagnosis of endometriosis. She had laparoscopic surgery, which eased symptoms for a while.
Much later, she welcomes menopause.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
From Shaw-Russell’s solo show, This Fragile Dwelling Place at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon in 2015.
Rights for this Image:
This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.
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