by Daniela Honey 

Entering through the cavities of the human body, the process of persistence in orientating the visceral structure which reflects the bombardment of the ill body. The abstract forms reflect my identity-responsive practice where I refashion my self-image and transcend a tumultuous gut illness into a visual archive of the body’s experience. The physical act of stitching nuances the piecing together of the dislocated system. The interplay between textiles, abstraction and art as a therapeutic tool all made up the distinctively liberating endoscopic lens which allowed visualisation of my own internal narrative. The adaptive value in which the material is manipulated fabricates the delicate yet warped fragility which is reflective of my state.

Navigating the conditions of delicate mental health skewed by the echoes of the ill body. Collecting the golden species of Helichrysum and pocketing the paper thin petals of sweet, Asteraceae became my therapy. Like the dried up petals which delicately rest until the next bloom, the human body takes time to be internally groomed.

The sensory elements of the space probe to triggered, foreign yet familiar feelings that harness and produce the intersection between the afflicted human body and nature. The reflective quality held by the work recognises nature as reconciliation through the embrace of chance and ephemeral state of ease, healing and illness seemingly opposing yet the two persist to co-exist and inform understanding of the invisible body. The cyclical nature evoked in the double narratives which oppose, equalise and counter-act within the process of internal visualisation brings forward the way in which healing entangles itself in the implicit versions of past suffering and pain. Making reference to biomimicry, microscopic inspection of cellular growth and traces left by organisms provides the enlarged view through which both can be seen. Illness and decay, which I once rejected, has evolved to become a reconstructed restoration of peace. The light presented through these interactions reveal an embrace of beauty and repulsion which unveil an acceptance of my ill body. Thus posing the physical space as an extension of manifesting hope through suffering.