Canadian artist Heidi Barkun engages with the subject matter of pain from the perspective of her lived experiences of chronic illness, surgical interventions, infertility, and invisible disability. Although she earned a B.Sc. in anatomy and cell biology before undertaking graduate studies in fine arts, the body is notably absent from her work; nevertheless, it remains central to her investigations. It is, rather, the recurrent motif of suture in her corpus\u200a\u2014\u200aon textile, canvas, or paper\u200a\u2014\u200athat evokes the fragility and resilience of the flesh, as it gets punctured, excised, and reassembled in procedures that are meant to recover health, but whose unacknowledged violence all too often results in monstrous or failed reassemblies.<\/p>\n\n

Barkun\u2019s work speaks to the sensory and suffering pains brought on by her physical experience: the former referring to the neurological sensation, the latter addressing the interpretation of the severity and meaning of pain, which is conditioned by culture. As sociologist David Le Breton reminds us in his book Anthropologie de la douleur (M\u00e9taili\u00e9, 1995, 13 [our translation]), \u201cThere is no pain without suffering\u200a\u2014\u200athat is to say, without affective significance translating the shift from a physiological phenomenon to the heart of the individual\u2019s moral consciousness.\u201d And it is in this translation between physiological experience and moral consciousness that pain becomes relational, even though it fundamentally evades the capacity to be fully and adequately communicated.<\/p>\n\n

Barkun transforms her private experiences of pain into a sociocultural critique by responding, through her work, to the medical, ableist, and patriarchal (micro)violences that pervade everyday existence. From the social conventions that still tie femininity to expectations of reproduction to the lack of accommodations available for people living with chronic illnesses and disabilities, Barkun\u2019s works attest to failed promises of inclusion and support and to the damages that remain, even as we attempt to construct gentler and more caring futures.<\/p>\n\n