Reconstruction Vol. 15, No. 1
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Auto/pathographies ed. by Tamar Tembeck, Sagamie édition d'art, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, 2014 Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, 2014, ISBN 978-2-923612-42-3 / Reviewed by Sandra Eileen Lim
<1> Auto/pathographies offers a unique perspective on the subject of illness and the body by departing from tendencies to gaze and quickly consume diseased bodies as sites of spectacle, heroic suffering, and victory. Rather, the intention presented here is to activate in the observer a sense of corporality and existential engagement in relation to the unique processes of living, enacting, and even dying through illness and disease. As the cover image of this catalogue suggests, a good portion of the exhibition is devoted to the art and life of British photographer Jo Spence (1934 - 1992) and the body of work, which she created surrounding her own fight with breast cancer. This includes rarely seen works by Spence including photographs from The Final Project (1991-1992). The exhibition, which this catalogue documents, is the product of two residences undertaken by author Tamar Tembeck beginning in 2008 at the artist-run centre OBORO in Montreal, and a residence - based International Fellowship Program for Art and Theory at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen at Innsbruck, Austria, in 2009. That same year, Tembeck also curated the exhibition "Auto/Pathographies" in Innsbruck's Kunstpavillion. This was further expanded upon in the 2012 exhibition back at OBORO in Montreal. In total, the work of ten artists were curated for this exhibition including: Susan B. Markisz, Pam Patterson, Pascal Dufaux, Chantal duPont, Carl Bouchard, Christina Lammer, Terry Dennett, Angela Ellsworth, and Tina Takemoto. Moreover, it is through the work of such artists that Tembeck finds the idea of representing disease in the first person, which she titles "autopathography," as both complicated and enriched by these artist's approaches, who engage individually and/or through collaborative practices, between artists and medical personnel, family and loved ones, as well as with other artists. As Tembeck notes, while we may confront our own sickness and mortality as an individual, we rarely undergo such experiences in insolation, thus the expansion of the term autopathography into Auto/pathographies, which takes into account individual and collaborative experience and practice (8).
<2> The catalogue contains four innovative essay documents, illustrated with the works contained in the exhibition. Beginning with the curatorial essay, Tembeck outlines pertinent questions and concerns driving her own investigations regarding the emerging visual field of Auto/Pathography. For example, "can the private experience of illness be conveyed to others in an effective manner and meaningful manner, and if so, what forms do such communications take? As well as "what are the aesthetic characteristics of visual and performative auto/pathographies at the turn of the 21st c, and what, more broadly, are the limits that artists face in the attempt to adequately represent experiences of illness" (8). Ultimately Tembeck initiates newcomers to the field but also proposes that such questions need to be considered within the broader framework of medicine and its attendant behavioral, socio-cultural practices, and representations of disease. This is because, as Tembeck asserts, all too often the cultural study of health and illness tends to equate physical illness and disease with "certain character types" or even "moral flaws" (10). With a sense of urgency, then, Tembeck rightfully stakes a claim for a more open and wider cultural and ethical discourse around the experience of illness and dying. Christina Lammer's Empathography I perhaps illustrates this issue best in the video installations and essay/documentation contained in Empathography, which addresses what it means to be a patient, by tackling the complex web of doctor's and experts voices and opinions, which can attend to any one patient, and therefore presents varying degree's of personal and empathetic responses with patients. It is through the mosaic of such voices, which her video installations present, that we can begin to form a sense of being ill from the perspective of patient and practitioner. In this way, Lammer also uncannily illustrates that "suffering gets a voice without showing the horrific scenario's of disease" (78).
<3> Also featured in the exhibition catalogue, is the collaborative auto/pathographieswork Love/Sick: A dialogue by Angela Ellsworth and Tina Takemoto, based upon the collaborative project Imag(in)ed Malady, which the two artists initiated in 1990 when Ellsworth was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. During the course of Ellsworth's illness, the two artists engaged in a distance-based form of collaboration. However, what began as Ellsworth's attempt to document the process and effects of disease upon her own body soon became a form of emotional and symbiotic attachment for Takemoto, who, in receiving Ellsworth's photographs, simultaneously engaged in a practice of rhyming the effects of Ellsworth's disease upon her own body while documenting it. During the process, Takemoto seemingly crossed a line and went to the extremes of burning her own skin with matches in order to approximate and empathize with Ellsworth's blown veins due to chemotherapy treatments. As a result, Takemoto experienced an emotional breakdown, the experience and revelations of which still reverberate for both artists today, as their fascinating conversation in the exhibition catalogue reveals. Each artist's photographs are presented side by side, the effect of which is to open up a discourse about shared suffering and empathy. On the whole, their work speaks of the often overlooked knowledge that illness and suffering is a shared process that takes its toll on loved ones as much as the sick. In this respect, Ellsworth and Takemoto's work offers important insights into how forms of self-representation and shared representation can empower individuals who face the trauma of medical interventions as well as mediate the ethical problem of objectifying those who are sick and vulnerable through representation.
<4> Terry Dennett, a long time collaborator of the late photographer Jo Spence, also the curator of the Jo Spence Memorial Archive, takes up the final essay in the catalogue. The focus here is on delineating Spence's last works, The Final Project, and the artistic and creative processes that she developed as a way to incorporate her vital spirit into her work in the light of failing health and imminent death. As Dennett highlights, what is special about this body of work is its departure from realism, to an embrace of allegorical forms of representation, which draws from such traditions as Magical Realism and the Visual Scripting therapies developed by French psychotherapist Robert Desoille. Spence also employed masks, skeletons and dolls in her work, all of which enabled her to disembody herself from the constraints and realities of illness while enabling her to engage in a dialogue about her experiences with illness and the reality of her own death from a less-centered perspective. Of special interest are the pre-digital methods of photomontage and composite images, which Spence developed through layering 35mm slide-work and multiple exposures of film in relation to her allegorical methodology. In these works, ghostly rich images of Spence-her face, skin or naked body-are permeated with (and peer through) crackling textures and crumbing surfaces, as if to signify the enigma of the artifacts of some ancient ruins. Since Spence's late works have never before been published, this catalogue offers a rare opportunity to preview some of them, and can offer a base for further academic study.
<5> While the focus of the exhibition and catalogue is on the early 21st century development of auto/pathographies, this is not to say that Tembeck hasn't provided some consideration to the advent of digital online forms in the future development of the field. In this respect, inclusion of artists such as British artist Donald Rodney's and his work Autoicon (1998-2000), an interactive website/database of audio recordings, text, and images, presents groundbreaking work in the digital field, as well as future possibilities for Auto/pathography. Such work raises the question of what happens to the digital archive of an artist after that artist has passed away? Overall, the exhibition catalogue will be of interest to scholars, academics, and artists working in the fields of auto/biography, cultural studies, and disability studies, in addition to individuals, families, and medical professionals who are involved in the treatment of those living with terminal illnesses.
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