Feminist Art

Loss

2015

I began to stitch my reproductive system back onto my hospital gown whilst still in hospital after having a full hysterectomy,  I felt a huge sense of loss but also a sense of relief.  I mourned the loss of my womanhood, perceiving the loss of my whole reproductive system as an ending of my identity as a woman, I was very worried about how no longer ‘being a woman’ might affect my marriage and my relationships with others.  I hadn’t expected to be able to have children but would have liked to and this was a very final end to any remaining hope.  I felt as though a huge space had opened up in me and imagined the other organs jostling to take up that space.  I was also very relieved to be finally freed of many years of chronic pain and the bodily cycles of illness.  I felt like a person more than a woman now and hoped that I could use this new found freedom to achieve things.  Women’s health is still often neglected and their bodies are still medicalised.  All of these feelings were totally unaddressed by the medical practitioners involved in my health care.  I felt more like nothing more than a body in their eyes.  

The Last Cut

2015

This is a painting of my hysterectomy scar. Having a full hysterectomy, visiting hospital and being in hospital felt like a continuation of the violence against my body that I have experienced since I have been a young child. However, after the hysterectomy in spite of a sudden and severe menopause, a part of me felt finally free of my reproductive system and the violence that had been enacted onto my body.