Submission Date

4-24-2023

Document Type

Paper

Department

Art

Second Department

Health & Exercise Physiology

Adviser

Deborah Barkun

Second Adviser

Catherine van de Ruit

Committee Member

Deborah Barkun

Committee Member

Catherine van de Ruit

Committee Member

Rebecca Lyczak

Department Chair

Sarah Kaufman

Department Chair

April Carpenter

Project Description

This work uses the methodologies of both art history and medical sociology through the ‘syndemic’ framework to engage in close readings of two selected artworks, Exit (1997) by Nancer LeMoins and Violation of Africa (1984) by Affrekka Jefferson. An interdisciplinary approach to these works enables consideration of how multiple marginalized identities—i.e., living with a stigmatized illness, being a woman, being LGBTQIA+, being a person of color—appear in visual art and shape illness experience; these ideas are investigated through a formal and iconographic reading of the selected artworks. Placing art as the foundation of this analysis reveals its astounding impact and utility in the face of an ongoing pandemic, constantly subject to the turning tides of healthcare policy, biomedical discovery, and social norms. In this dynamic context, visual art is more than a medium for expression—it is a transformative tool that promotes healing, cultivates visibility and community, and fans the flames of social reform.

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