Orthopaedics

Abstract

Suffering from an injury forced me to reconsider my relationship to my body, but also left me facing the choice of seeking treatment and to confront a distant and alien world. Medicine seemed ruthless, relentless and uncaring, proposing the possibility of repair in exchange for suffering. Is it worth it? is the question I am dealing with while contemplating the bargain. In this project I am exploring my relationship with the concept-entity of medicine. Its position in society invokes sacredness, and dogma results from this position. I approach these themes by using craft as a communication tool with my own struggles. Craft allowed me to find a common ground with medicine and by extension to gain an understanding or a connection to this field. This common ground creates a possibility for a two-way communication and allows me to regain control in the exchange. Craft is the tool that, in my Mind, brings Medicine down from its pedestal and makes it approachable. Using my craft to explore these issues filters the notions through my hands, like the image of the medical structure is filtered through my mind. In this way, craft allows for a healthy Mind-Body interaction, acting as an external bridge between the two entities. This circular interaction of layers of filtering, from the idea, filtered through the mind, then through the hands and materialized back to reality offers me a possibility to face the distortion existing in my Mind. This confrontation creates a situation of introspection and re-evaluation leading to a new understanding of the subject matter.