The (In)conspicuous Body: Perceiving and Visually Representing Physical Sensations: A Visual Essay

Abstract

This artistic investigation is based on personally experienced symptoms caused by nervous disorders and is to be seen as a graphic phenomenology. Drawing physical sensations raises fundamental questions as to the very possibility of visual representation and of conveying to others what cannot be seen. Efforts to come to grips with bodily perception that has been altered as a result of a chronic illness lead, by dint of introspection and externalization, to a new understanding of one’s own body. In addition, the graphic catalogue of physical sensations can provide a stimulus for a response on the part of other persons affected by the disease while, at the same time, contributing in a general way to conveying what is simply difficult to formulate in words.