Jo Spence is a female, feminist artist who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1982.
She made a series of self-portraits documenting her battle with the disease until she passed from leukemia a decade later. The photographs expressed her physical and emotional state. Her doctor and collaborator Tim Sheard explained, ‘Spence is representing the honest emotions felt living in an unruly body that cannot conform to the pressures of female perfection expected and idealised in Western society.’
Working with artist and psychoanalyst Rosy Martin, Spence developed a co-counselling practice they called ‘Phototherapy’, which aimed to resolve emotional issues, anxieties or past traumatic experiences through role play and photographic portraiture.
The Following Photos are from her collections, “Narratives of Dis-Ease” and “Libido Uprising“
I want to explore her work this week because I am interested in the human form and how it is or can be changed or altered. In the past I’ve also been quite interested in body altering techniques as well (corsetry/surgery).
Moreover, my mother suffered from breast cancer, and I saw first hand the psychological effects that it can have on a woman’s relationship with her body. I’m interested in exploring these kind of mind/body relationships
Locations: Prints & Drawings Study Room
Samantha's RCA Process 