Pain Diary Series: Lung and Kidney, Cindy Stelmackowich
Red and black glass beads escape from dictionary pages and flow into shapes that appear as cells and tissues of marbled papers.
Title: Pain Diary Series: Lung and Kidney
Artist: Cindy Stelmackowich
Date: 2021
Medium/Materials: Mixed media
Dimensions: 106.68 cm x 71.12 cm
Form/Genre: Collage
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Embodiment; Patient narrative; Pain; Autopathography
Artist Statement:
This artwork is from Cindy Stelmackowich’s Pain Diary Series.
The inspiration for this series was experiencing a prolonged back injury and chronic pain. During that period, Stelmackowich created artworks that addressed the lived sensations, moods, and emotions of that pain journey, as well as the limits of medical and clinical knowledge about pain and its effects.
Attracted to marbled papers and the way the inks created wavy patterns and shapes that can echo the interior of the human body, Stelmackowich worked with an expert in paper marbling techniques to create a series of large sheets of paper with this bodily focus in mind. To further reinforce cellular shapes, she also began collecting small glass beads in various colours.
Meticulously applying these cell-like beads on top of dictionary pages that picture anatomical icons, she was able to draw out trickling lines and biomorphic shapes that flowed into the bodily tissues and cells in the marbled papers. These lines became records of her pain and experiences with dislocated discs. In most instances, the cell-like beads extend and overlap the medical definition: they signify overflows and nerve-like convergences. In each of the works, the glass beads literally “escape” from the definition of the illustrated body part to show discursive and textual limits.
Each artwork in Stelmackowich’s Pain Diary Series constructs a new kind of visual narrative that points to pain sensations and emotional journeys based on lived experiences.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
Created while experiencing a back injury.
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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