Respite
Respite is the first work in a series titled Fleeting Permanence exploring the potential of containing, categorizing, and organizing the chronic pain experience. The grid structure provides a rational, stable, and consistent space for the often unpredictable and erratic pain experience that cannot be touched, seen, or heard but is felt. The grid allows for the intangible to become tangible removing the isolation of pain by both protecting the experience of pain while simultaneously suppressing it through containment. The labor intensive use of needle felting at this scale allows me to create textural surfaces of the imperceptible through an act of intentional restriction by using only a single felting needle to create the work. The use of raw wool roving creates an ethereal and temporal surface that is oppositional to the pain experience. This dichotomy between the aesthetics of the work and the experience that informs its creation is a pragmatic resolution for the unseen experience of chronic pain. The intentional simplicity and subdued hues in the work belie the perils of assumptions, to mislead and diminish the potential for a more profound understanding. The personal disclosure into the public sphere is an act of reconciliation; an acknowledgement of the influence pain has on daily living and the constraints it creates. Limitations become a governing influence restricting opportunities and reducing quality of life, a phrase that loses its resonance every time it is uttered because it is inevitable. In an act of defiance, each painting subverts the isolating nature of pain to represent it as beautifully unassuming at first glance.
