“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, my treatment started in the spring. I was advised to view each part of the treatment as a separate event within a whole process. It felt like a relay, the baton being passed cleanly on. Twelve months, four seasons; a lived experience too delicate to document, to capture the fragile feelings of illness. Yet a moment photographing nature, a flower, seemed to connect with the delicate strength of life, even if just for a second.”
Irish photographer and poet Liza Cauldwell began making still lifes of flowers to help process her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. She photographed the flowers, “often wild, from my garden, my neighbours’ gardens or locally”, on her kitchen table, a symbol of togetherness or celebration, but also a place of solitude and reflection.
Now well again, Liza continues photographing as she navigates through healing. The exhibition Stories from my Kitchen Table, photographs in response to personal illness, is displayed in the 1st floor atrium of St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin, where she was treated.
There she met Gráinne Millar, arts consultant and Culture Night pioneer, and the two friends at different stages of treatment resolved they’d exhibit Cauldwell’s work one day, which they’ve done with the hospital’s support.
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Both were treated under Prof Janice Walshe, who says “art can bring comfort, meaning and perspective to the journey of illness and recovery”, and that at Vincent’s they’re “committed to care beyond medicine, supporting patients’ emotional and psychological challenges”.
The exhibition has been extended until January 31st following responses from clinicians and patients. - Deirdre Falvey
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