Corby, T; Noble, G; Das-Gupta, R; Reginaldo, A; (2019) Blood & Bones: Living with Cancer. [Catalogue]. The Archives Gallery: London, UK.

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Abstract

This is the catalogue accompanying Blood & Bones: Living with Cancer, an exhibition at UCLH’s The Street Gallery on Euston Road, London. It runs from 28th February until 24th April 2019, and is open 24/7. Blood & Bones: Living with Cancer is an exhibition of work by internationally exhibited and award-winning artist Tom Corby whose poignant images combine quantitative medical/clinical data describing the artist's Multiple Myeloma* with the qualitative data generated by his personal experience of living with cancer. Corby has developed a range of simple data driven approaches to track, share and make sense of his haematological cancer. These include data indexes capturing both clinical and personal experiences of the physical, emotional, and affective impact of living with cancer as a patient, artist, and human being. Engaging with issues at the heart of UCLH’s mission, and the concerns of its patients, Blood & Bones: Living with Cancer presents different ways to represent the subjective experience of someone suffering from illness, providing various entry points for audiences/viewers to engage the exhibition theme. For example, some photographs are of the types of head-ware patients wear while undergoing chemotherapy. Others use the visual language of data visualization and medical graphing, but are here deployed by the patient and used to articulate personal rather than medical data. In this, the works in the exhibition are connected to the popular use of personal narratives such as blogging to discuss illness in ways that are often moving, funny, informative, and therapeutic. In sharing his personal data, Corby has sought to demystify the experience of serious illness by drawing attention to the multiple experiences that are shared between patients, their families and clinicians, in order to contribute to understanding to what he calls ‘the ecologies of treatment [in which] patients, diseases and medics are entangled’. Blood & Bones: Living with Cancer is curated by Dr Marquard Smith (UCL Institute of Education) and Dr Rishi Das-Gupta (formerly Director of Innovation, UCLH now at Royal Brompton). It is accompanied by a series of public engagement activities (curated by Agnese Reginaldo) and this catalogue (designed by Mark Little) published by The Archives Gallery. The project is in collaboration with UCLH Arts and Heritage UCLH NHS Foundation Trust’s arts programme. UCLH arts and heritage is committed to providing a welcoming, uplifting environment for all patients, visitors and staff through the use of a varied and stimulating arts and heritage programme. Its work aims to improve the patient experience, boost staff morale, increase engagement with the arts and celebrate the Trust’s unique heritage and community. The exhibition, associated events and catalogue are funded by Macmillan Cancer Support.

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