Recipes for Disruption

Join me as I read two recipes that set up the conditions for two instances where the body is disrupted.

I put a call out on social media asking people to share their bodies disruptions, be it by accident, design necessity or vanity. I was inundated. I interviewed 50+ people. So many stories and life journeys. Pictures, tales, text and drawings. The silence was broken and I read that silence halts the mending of our body as discussed by Bessel Van Der Kolk in his book "The Body Keeps the Score". A narrative emerged.

Once talking we connect. It was not about unburdening, although this played a part but about triumph and survival. The more work I created the more I realised the disruption of the skin be it by accident, medical necessity, vanity or to help others formed a body map – the body as landscape. We are all disrupted from birth with the umbilical cord being cut. Making and talking, making and discussing became a methodology and the work evolved. A collection of bodies all punctured became a mirror of global trauma. Lives disrupted in a pandemic, migration and prejudice so prevalent. It speaks of disrupted times and the push and pull of people. The figures in the work are homogenous and heterogenous – alike and yet unique – just as we are. It became a celebration of difference, similarity and connection.

Here are two special stories.