This body of work (2024) was inspired by the health care system in the US. I am focusing on themes of disconnect, isolation, and alienation in relation to how our system functions and the psychological experience of the patient.
Cut up and disjointed body parts are assembled on tie-dyed canvas. The tie-dye, once something nostalgic, becomes a void, a space stuck in limbo, with an unknowable end - a mental landscape patients often occupy while waiting for results, approval of scans, or an appeal made to insurance companies. The characters are both dark and humorous, existing in a dissonant, sickly, colorscape.
The works ‘Two-Faced’ and ‘Cigna’ are inspired by the cruelty of insurance companies: they consider patients’ need for care in the arbitrary terms of algorithms, not persons worthy of respect.
The characters in these paintings sometimes stop abruptly, are cut-off, or are missing limbs. This may reflect how Western medicine focuses on single body parts, rather than a holistic approach, but also how patients often feel abandoned, betrayed or alone within our system.