Feelings, Fossilized
(project link)Smita Sen. Feelings, Fossilized. 2022-23. Drawings, sculptures.
Sen borrows elements from medical imaging, anatomical studies, and geography in order to visualize “ghost pains” in her body emerging from caring for and ultimately grieving her late father. Sen describes these procedural forms that begin as 3D models before being translated into 3D-printed sculptures and drawings, as “[t]races that wouldn’t make it to a formal diagnosis, but that are a part of me all the same” (Sen, 2023). Each drawing contains diaristic marginalia detailing interstitial events and emotions. While these pains do not easily map onto existing diagnostic frameworks, Sen’s speculative renderings can equally be understood as both sites and agents of the affliction.
Sen, S. [@smitatims] (2023, July 7). Feelings, Fossilized… [Photographs] Instagram. www.instagram.com/p/CuaihoJukcg/
S_D/B: How, if at all, have you used your art practice to collect or create soft(qualitative) data on a lived experience (i.e: illness, pain, grief, trauma, etc.)?
SS: My art practice has been essential in allowing me to identify and organize the layers of physical pain created by grief and emotion. Artistic research has provided me with a framework to study archival images, contemporary medical images, and the history of medicine, and to synthesize these studies with a somatic understanding of my own pain, illness, and recovery.