‘Alienation’ Juliet Chenery-Robson
Work by Juliet Chenery-Robson will be shown in a number of disused offices in the region throughout May and June and nationally throughout the rest of the year and into the new year, to help raise funds for ME North East and ME Research UK. There will be two opening evenings, the first on 13 May in Peterlee and the second in Newcastle during July and the offices will be open by appointment outside of these times. The programme is supported by Life with Art who will make a donation to each charity following the events. The events are open and accessible to all and by attending you will increase the money raised for ME North East and ME Research UK.
Juliet’s work investigates the aura of scepticism surrounding the illness ME/CFS. Often referred to as the disease of a thousand names ME affects over 250,000 people in the UK and many thousands more worldwide. However, despite this fact, ME remains misunderstood by many health professionals, with many still believing it is “all in the mind”. So through her detailed research, investigation and photographic works Chenery-Robson hopes to help make this devastating illness visible to an often disbelieving audience.
‘A Diagnosis of Exclusion’ displays a series of powerful photographic works, conveying the alienation, social exclusion and loss of identity prevalent in the shadow of this disease.
Chenery-Robson invites the viewer to test their own notion and understanding of ME through this series of hospital images and portraits. Trapped in the ‘kingdom of the sick’ the sufferer seeks comfort and reassurance in their attempt to cope with this illness’ often severe and disabling symptoms. The individuals in the portraits look out at the viewer, seemingly in an attempt to challenge your concept of ME, willing you to understand and recognise the reality of this frequently life destroying illness.
The images of ‘Unpredictable Patterns’ focus upon symbolic details and reflect that lives have become ‘stilled’ and removed from the public sphere and confined to the private by their illness. A solitary glass of water, seen in front of flocked wallpaper, appears like a Morandi still life in which all is timeless, calm, as if outside of history. In another image, a collection of butterflies, encased in their individual boxes, provides a correlative for the collection of individuals represented here, each involuntarily entombed in their own rooms. Chenery-Robson intends our impressions to be contradictory, to be as lodged with problems as the medical profession’s is when dealing with her subjects. The compound idea transmitted is of lives continuing whilst suspended, spent in quiet incarceration.
Fri 13 May 2011 6-8:30pm: Gemini Building, White House Road, Peterlee, SR8 2RS
July – date to be confirmed: Warwick House, Grantham Road, Newcastle, NE2 1QX
Group visits can be accommodated. To arrange a viewing or for more information please contact: julieteditor@aol.com or visit: http://www.facebook.com/meportraits.juliet
For more information on Life with Art visit: http://www.lifewithart.co.uk
