The FLUX exhibition, running from May 18th - August 19th, 2018 at the International Museum of Surgical Science (IMSS) in Chicago, builds awareness and understanding of head and neck cancer patients' experiences through diverse contemporary art, ranging from video installation to photography, print, sculpture, and drawing. The diverse works reveal aspects of the cancer experience that often remain hidden. Appealing to all of the senses, they convey the confusion, catastrophe, and hope associated with a serious illness. The term "flux" refers to a flow that is unmanageable - but also cleansing - alluding both to the experience of cancer, and its treatment. This collaborative, interdisciplinary, and interactive exhibition shows that human bodies are enduring and malleable, subject to disaster but also to repair.
Opening Reception, and Curator's Talk with Lianne McTavish (May 18th, 2018)
Date/ Time: Friday, May 18th, 2018, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Web: https://www.facebook.com/events/134406054079365/
Lianne McTavish is Professor of the History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta), where she offers courses in early modern visual culture, the history of the body, and critical museum theory. As a member of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, artists, and people whose lives have been impacted by head and neck cancer, she actively engaged in workshops, studio visits, and conversations involving artists and patient collaborators, which informed her approach to curating the FLUX exhibition, which she will describe in her talk, along with works featured in the exhibition.
FREE and open to the public.
Public Symposium - "Undergoing FLUX: Art-Medicine Collaborative Praxis" (May 19th, 2018)
Date/ Time: Saturday, May 19, 2018, 10:30 am - 3:00 pm (doors open at 10:00 am)
Web: https://www.facebook.com/events/613883358948752
This public symposium focuses on the promise of interdisciplinary, art-medicine collaborative practice. Health researchers, and symposium co-chairs ~Minn Yoon and Pamela Brett-MacLean, artists ~Brad Necyk, Heather Huston, Ingrid Bachmann, Jill Ho-You, Jude Griebel, and Sean Caulfield, video documentarian ~Kyle Terrence, exhibition curator, ~Lianne McTavish, and patient collaborators, ~Kimberley Flowers and Leslie O'Connor-Parsons, will reflect on their experience of being part of a unique art-based research project initiated at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta), which resulted in the "FLUX: Responding to Head and Neck Cancer" exhibition. Chicago-based respondents include Rosemary Seelaus (University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics; Cranio Facial Center), Joshua Dixon (Digital Illustrator, Photographer), and Michael Blackie (University of Illinois at Chicago; Health Humanities).
Join us for a lively discussion regarding the role of contemporary art, specific works in the exhibition as well as the potential of research/creation for public engagement and social change, and relations of art and medicine in the context of head and neck cancer. Doors open at 10:00 am. The formal symposium program begins at 10:30 am; panel presentations will be followed by an open audience-interactive discussion. See "Undergoing FLUX" symposium program attached.
NOTE: Registration is required - TIX are $17, which also covers the entrance fee to the museum. Space is limited, register now here!
Everyone is welcome to stay and experience the International Museum of Surgical Science and FLUX exhibition following the symposium.
**Directions to IMSS, and information about parking. If you have additional questions, including media inquiries, regarding the FLUX exhibition and related events, please contact michelle@imss.org.
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More about the "see me, hear me, heal me" program initiative and FLUX exhibition
Imagine not being able to recognize yourself in the mirror - see me. Nobody asked about how it felt when I lost my voice - hear me. I will never be the same, even after dozens of surgeries and years of rehabilitation - heal me.
Since 2015, six Canadian artists, and an interdisciplinary team of health researchers and care providers associated with the University of Alberta and Alberta Health Services have been listening to, learning from, and collaborating with people whose lives have been impacted by head and neck cancer. Our collective journey through a series of workshops, interviews, personal meetings, and group studio visits contributed to the successful realization of our ambitious project directed to transforming understanding of the experience of head and neck cancer. Led by Minn Yoon (Dentistry), with Pamela Brett-MacLean (Psychiatry; Arts & Humanities in Health & Medicine), Sean Caulfield (Art & Design), Lianne McTavish (Art & Design), Helen Vallianatos (Anthropology), Suresh Nayar (Surgery), Jana Rieger (Rehabilitation Medicine), and Brad Necyk (Psychiatry; Art & Design), ongoing research has featured analysis of patient narratives, and public presentations at local and international conferences, as well as the upcoming exhibition, FLUX: Responding to Head and Neck Cancer at the International Museum of Surgical Science. For more information about the "see me, hear me, heal me" initiative, visit the project website or contact minn.yoon@ualberta.ca.