IWD Event - Lunchtime Lecture: Exploring Genetic Inheritance through Art
08 March 2024, 12:00 pm–1:00 pm
The Institute for Women’s Health will be hosting six free, events to celebrate #iwd2024. Please book via the Eventbrite links. Explore the impacts of genetic inheritance on the Iives and the practices of two artists. Join Jill Mueller and Paloma Tendero for a lunchtime talk as they take you through some of the artwork that emerged in response to their medical experiences.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Organiser
-
Sarah Mayhew – EGA Institute for Women's Health
Location
-
Room 508, Roberts BuildingUniversity College LondonTorrington PlaceLondonWC1E 7JEUnited Kingdom
At age 38, artist Jill Mueller tested positive for a breast cancer gene mutation that gives women a high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers. When doctors recommended preventive surgeries to remove her healthy breasts and ovaries, Jill embarked on an emotionally charged journey to engage her medical experience as a patient and as an artist. Through her collaborative project ‘See Me Through This’ and installation ‘Anatomy of a Choice’, Jill uses photography, mixed-media work, creative writing and family archives to explore the emotional and mental transformations that take place alongside the physical changes to her body. Through this work, she sheds light on the complexity of a choice that lives well beyond the clinical setting.
Paloma Tendero’s work explores physical and psychological relationships that spring from inherited DNA. Her artwork aims to represent the period of changes the body suffers, working around dualities: between the inside and outside, health and illness and the transmutation from one to the other. By investigating the co-existence between the healthy and the sick, Paloma reflects on the vulnerability intrinsic to the physical shell and its genetic makeup. Her art embodies a contemplation of the desire to celebrate life despite illness, portraying the beauty found within the flaws and errors that may manifest in the human body.
Biographies