CONFINE DELL’INFERNO: PAINTING AS AN EXPULSION
This practice-led research project grew out of a need to navigate my obsessive-compulsive (OCD) thoughts and actions related to the fear of disease and illness. My painting practice enables me to confront my contamination-based OCD through sustained visual engagement with preserved human medical specimens, specifically those housed in the Harry Brookes Allen Museum. Central to the research is the translation of drawn studies of these medical specimens into large-scale paintings, this methodology focuses on the abstractions that occur throughout this process. This project positions the act of painting as both a form of exposure therapy and a method of recontextualization. The paintings serve as a confrontation with, rather than an avoidance of, the sources of contamination anxiety: infection, decay and vulnerability.
