The World Health Organization[1] defines violence as ‘the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation. Choosing to go under the knife, a slang [...]
Being deprived of sleep is not only experienced by the patient as discussed in the last post but also by those working within the hospital. This fourth of a series of short essays or reflections on aspects of what could be understood as forms of violence within the practice of medicine turns to the experience [...]
The American medical humanities scholar Kathleen Powers questions the notion that the violence within hospitals or within medicine is tempered by metaphor and discretion. Rather, she considers the metaphoric language used in hospitals to be a language of violence, or a language of war. In a 2017 paper she outlined the militaristic and violent frameworks [...]
The French writer Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy questioned the status quo and in particular the patriarchy by using the form of the fairy tale to both subtly and directly question the accepted male and female behaviors of the time. The link below is to an article from Late Night Live on the ABC discussing the fictionalised reinterpretation [...]
Follow this link to read of an interesting development in the practice of oral history, one of the strongest ways to allow the voice of the participant into the discussion. The author's approach expands the scope of the practice of oral history to one where the language of non verbal communication during the interview is [...]
Working on a Time of Death series is a recurring event in my practice. First occurring in 2010 they circle around to be remade every two to three years. A video work will accompany these still images from Series Three and be overlaid with the sound track of the reading of a fairy-tale Once Upon [...]
Fiona Davies Coughing up Blood ( Detail) 2019 silk paper, aluminium, found objects and light, 300 x 600 x 600(h)cm. Photo Credit: Pamela Kleemann My mother's slightly yellowed tupperware container has become the makeshift Xray reader in this desolate, isolated space within the gallery at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.
https://resilienceintimesofadversity.com/fiona-davies-coughing-up-blood-2019/ This link will take you to my work on the Resilience in times of adversity website. Curated by Vivienne Dadour the exhibition is at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre and runs until the 29th September.
https://vimeo.com/355286468 A short video set in the transition from surgery to the recovery room to somewhere else. The landscape is populated by hallucinations,, by competitions and by counting down to start. The ending is ambiguous
The work traces the marks on a bedside medical monitor showing the changes in the heartbeat, oxygenation and blood pressure of a patient whose abdominal aortic aneurysm has ruptured. Fiona Davies, Woven Architecture - Site 1, 2019, Ribbon,thread and tape. Dimensions variable. As installed in The State Silk Museum, Tbilisi Georgia Photo credit Alex Gooding
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