Tag: cancer

The role of metaphors

I think I may have already shared that something that particularly interests me for this project – and in my wider work – is the metaphors we use to explain things. Some of these metaphors are so deeply engrained in our language that we no longer even notice they are metaphors. However, when you are an outsider trying to understand something new, the metaphors somehow stand out much more clearly. That’s one of the things I particularly enjoy about working with scientific themes as a non-scientist – the metaphors tend to stand out loud and clear.

One of the principle ways that I am approaching this work is to identify some of the key metaphors that explain cancer as part of a living ecology and the processes that form part of that ecology. That’s why it has been such a joy to be able to talk to the researchers who are doing this work, and not just read scientific paperwork. Although research papers do also contain many useful metaphorical ways of describing their content, I tend to find the richest language when in conversation face to face where we can explore the ideas that emerge in more detail and I can follow particular paths to see where they lead. The wonderful Professor Sir Mel Greaves, who I have been lucky enough to speak to as part of this project, observed that he finds he uses metaphor extensively when talking to a lay audience as he finds this is a most effective way to convey his ideas with real impact.

My hypothesis is that using these metaphors in my artwork will also communicate some complex or unfamiliar ideas more intuitively. That’s where I’m headed with this work and many of the following posts will be based around the metaphors that I’m interested in understanding and pursuing.

Welcome to Glass Bodies

I am starting this blog at a strange time, with the world variously locked down in order to manage the spread of Coronavirus. Much of my art practice focuses on how we visualise health and disease in our bodies, often at a microscopic level. At present we are being bombarded with images with most news stories and programmes accompanied colourful and intricate representations of the virus, embellished to work well in the media environment. Implicitly or explicitly we are being invited to imagine the virus entering our own cells, with all that implies. If it weren’t all so grim, this would be a bonanza for an artist who is concerned with how we imagine disease at a cellular level.

Cell Portrait, Julie Light, 2018

But at the moment everything is, in fact, pretty grim, and I am hearing every day from friends and their families how badly affected they are by the virus or the measures in place to suppress it. So instead of dwelling on Coronavirus, just now I will be writing about the projects that I already have underway. And maybe I’ll come back to thinking about the visualisation of viruses in relation to my practice at a later date. (Who knows? At the moment, nothing is certain).

So, the two projects on my radar at the moment are also both about health and the body.

My main focus at present is a collaboration with researchers at Leeds University who are investigating the possibilities for using a membrane disrupting peptide to develop new cancer treatments. They have commissioned me to make an artwork inspired by their research which will take up residence at St James University Hospital in Leeds, ultimately in their new Clinical Research Facility. You’ll find most of my initial blogs are about how this project is developing, both in terms of learning some of the science from the very patient team in Leeds, to starting to make creative work.

My other project is at an earlier stage of development, although I have been thinking about it for longer. This is a project to create a body of artwork exploring the experience, incidence and implications of pressure ulcers. Incredibly prevalent, pressure ulcers are little talked about but have a fierce impact on those who experience them, and they can life-threatening to the elderly and vulnerable if their ulcers become severe.

Over the coming weeks and months, I shall be writing about my thoughts, research, creative exploration and development for these projects and maybe some others. I would love it if you would join me by subscribing, commenting, or just reading along and enjoying.