Penny, Aphrodented, 2024
Plaster, Wire, Acrylic paint, Faux Petals.
On the negative body cast I was drawn to represent the rawness of sensations and loss of sensations caused by the surgeries I had, which severed and disturbed nerves in the area. I have numbness, shooting pains, lighting strikes of nerve impulses, pins and needles, tender scars and itches I can’t scratch, almost as if I have ‘phantom flesh’ areas. My breast and a large area around it now feel painful, out of bounds, untouchable, irritably sensitive to scrutiny. All these sensations are disconcerting and at times distressing, the familiarity of close and intimate parts of my body are defamiliarised, alienated, and strange.
The positive body cast then became a receptacle for the image of the marble Venus or Aphrodite, a body carved into, (cancer carved out), where beauty can include and be created out of injury and vulnerability, healed and healing scars becoming veins in the marble.
In the group, we helped each other to make our bodycasts. This process was profoundly therapeutic; offering and receiving a gentle, understanding and non-judgemental touch, allowing our scars to be exposed and seen, recognising that we all experience something similar, being able to talk about the aspects of our surgery that we found most difficult, all these things were healing.
© Penny Wright, 2024
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