Hidden Agenda is a large-scale multi-faceted art project about living with an ostomy. It openly addresses quality-of-life issues ranging from identity and privacy to the gritty specifics of management and self-care. This work is intense and poignant, yet tastefully, thoughtfully, and beautifully done. It conveys vast amounts of information and feelings, and provides a long-overdue vehicle for discussions about this crude and outdated medical procedure still used as state-of-art treatment for a variety of gastrointestinal diseases.
People have thanked me for facilitating this dialogue. Friends say they have not wanted to seem unconcerned, but they simply didn't know what to say. Nurses say they have cared for patients with ostomies but had not stopped to think about what it would be like to actually have one. Physicians say they want their peers to see this. And people with ostomies say it is about time. My hope is that increased awareness will lead to new solutions for people with gastrointestinal diseases.
Carol Chase Bjerke
The complete Hidden Agenda installation will be on view:
November 6, 2009 to February 19, 2010
Opening reception Friday November 6, 2009, 5 to 8 pm
The International Museum of Surgical Sciences
1524 N. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60610
312.642.6502
www.imss.org
Regular museum hours: Tues - Sat 10 am to 4 pm
May 19 to June 20, 2010
In conjunction with Wisconsin Story Project "Cancer Stories"
Playhouse Gallery
Overture Center for the Arts
201 State Street
Madison, WI 53703
608.258.4177
www.wisconsinstory.org/csp.html
www.overturecenter.com/community/overture-galleries/playhouse-gallery"
February 20 to March 19, 2011
Opening reception Sunday February 20, 2011, 2 to 4 pm
Marian Gallery
Mount Mary College
2900 N. Menomonee River Parkway
Milwaukee, WI 53222-4597
414.259.1440
Book now available:
Hidden Agenda, by Carol Chase Bjerke
Published by Borderland Books, 2008
www.borderlandbooks.net
www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/books/4669.htm
Hardcover. 96 pages, with 65 full-color illustrations
ISBN 978-0-9815620-0-1
$45.00
A Hidden Agenda DVD is also available on request.
For more information about the artwork, or to schedule an exhibition or related event:
cleechasebjerke@mindspring.com
Phone 608.238.3201
See this and other Arts in Healthcare artwork at www.thecreativecenter.org
|
|
|
|
Images 1
to 4
of 10
|
Next
|
|
