Hello!
In 2021 I was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. Since then it’s felt like I’ve been caught up in a frenetic medical vortex. I’m sure other folk can relate to this experience.
During this time, along with my friend, I’ve managed to produce a new body of artwork documenting my cancer journey. We work under the name of Henry/Bragg. Check us out if you get a spare mo.
The cycle of blood tests, biopsies, blood transfusions and CT scans, and then treatment including chemotherapy and immunotherapy, were frightening and traumatic. To help alleviate the stress, I adopted various alter ego’s imagined in different fantastical scenarios. The temporary dissociation from reality helped me to not to feel so traumatised by the barrage of tests.
We wanted to capture these moments as we knew that the situation would evolve and change over time. So we re-created the scenes and photographed them.
The piece of work we’ve made is an examination of how people deal with the trauma of a rotten diagnosis and the inevitable medical interventions that follow. There must be many interpretations that people employ to help alleviate stress. I found this method worked for me. I created temporary worlds of infinite rebirths. It helped us to rewrite the script, reimagining the ordeal as an exciting adventure, where a heroic idealised construct is destined to survive, whether it be a vampire, a spook or an alien abductee.
The work is called ‘Second Life’ and consists of photographs and text. Three of the images, along with some text, are currently being shown at The London Open 2022 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.
https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/the-london-open-2022-2/
