Art & Medicine Archive – 2017
November 30, 2017
Breast in Show: Viewing Breast Cancer’s Impact Through Art
by Corinne Lightweaver
Artist Corinne Lightweaver was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. Her exhibit Breast in Show: Viewing Breast Cancer’s Impact through Art, at the Keck School of Medicine of USC portrays her journey of healing from breast cancer. Lightweaver found collage and assemblage the best way to access her journey with cancer. Previously a painter, she felt a new medium allowed her more latitude than her previous artistic expression.
“My diagnosis of breast cancer, four years after being treated for lymphoma, was the catalyst for returning to my art studio. Following a bilateral mastectomy, the seven-month period of wearing expanders—balloons of saline—under my skin to stretch it, in preparation for the implants was grueling. I had to juggle the pain, the foreign objects in my body, and the new borders of my femininity and sexuality as a woman and a lesbian.
My previous work focused on expressionist paintings of wildlife, but as my focus changed to interior exploration following diagnosis, the materials and methods changed too. The new materials—discarded fabric scraps, found objects—and new methods—cutting, pasting, and piecing—comprised the best storytelling method for piecing a body and a life together again.
My [current] work excavates and exhumes my unconscious fears and remaps the changing contours of my body. [I’ve found that] the medium is integral to the process: The tactile nature of handling materials like nubby woven textiles, smooth satin, and supple suede [have] seduced me into forming images through fabric collage. Once I became comfortable with fabric collage, paper collage followed. Many of the paper collages borrow from that experience because I work a lot with texture even though the medium forms a flat surface. I gave myself over to the ‘not knowing’ and images began to appear without me willing it. As I worked with materials and let my unconscious lead the way, I encountered the complicated mix of horror and wonder that is at the core of surviving breast cancer.
My hope as an artist is to challenge viewers to see the unexpected and extraordinary in what they may assume to be commonplace. The collection of art in this show was characterized once as ‘Betty Crocker meets Ziggy Stardust.’ It is at once whimsical and edgy, tragic and comic, medically graphic and earthily sexual.”
Lightweaver’s work features a mixture of directly confrontational images about cancer, featuring knives and blood, while other images like fruit still lifes look serene and breast-like.
Event Recording
October 19, 2017
Pain-A Mail-in Art Show
Works from Around the World
What happens when you send out a worldwide call for art about pain? The Hoyt Gallery received over 300 pieces of art from 18 countries depicting physical and mental pain as well as the pain of life experience.
“Pain – A Mail in Art Show” Viewing and Discussion was held on October 19, 2017 at noon with Dr. Sunita Puri, Director of Palliative Care at Keck Medical Center, and Artist-in-Residence Ted Meyer. The Q&A was preceded by a reception on October 4, 2017 at 5pm.