Interview: Jennifer Wilkey on her practice and “Procedures for Mending”
Day 47, Digital Inkjet Print/Knitted Wool (2009)
Tell us about the project.
Hospitals have always been a part of my life. One of my earliest memories is a night at the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis in an exam room with my mother and my brother. My brother James was only a toddler at the time, and he was crying because he didn’t understand what was happening. Doctors had attached wires to his skull in an attempt to force a seizure, hoping to find out what was happening inside his brain. Twenty years later, I had a similar experience, but this time the wires were attached to my mother’s chest.
Take Two, Three Time Daily, Digital Inkjet Print/Pill Capsules, Fabric from Hospital Scrubs, Pill Cups (2009)
This specific project was created in response to my mother having heart surgery, her time in the hospital, and the ongoing management of having an artificial heart valve. My mother’s surgery and recurring admittance to the hospital spurred an interest in examining the longevity of illness and the feeling of sameness associated with being in this institutional setting. My mother speaks of her experience as being disconnected from what was occurring around her, only able to focus on her body. She was aware of the hospital, but not of those who came and went or events outside of her room
I look past just the biological disease afflicting the patient to the emotional and personal experience of illness. I consider what it means to be ill and examine the roles of the patient, doctor, and hospital in treatment and healing.
I am quite close with my mother and her heart surgery was the point of shift in our relationship when I became a caretaker for her. When my mother first came home from her surgery, our roles felt reversed. I helped to care for her and my family while she was recovering. At times, she still struggles with bouts of illness, particularly around her blood thinner medication, and I still have the urge to wrap her in bubble wrap to keep her safe. As my mother manages her own health, she also continues to care for my epileptic brother and my aging grandmother.
Take Two, Three Time Daily (detail), Pill Capsules, Fabric from Hospital Scrubs, Pill Cups (2009)
What is your process like?
I used fiber art processes, like embroidery and knitting, which serve as a connection to my mother. These are techniques she passed to me, just as she did her genes. The medium is an expression of my fear, that I could carry the same disease she had. At times, such as in Day 47, the knitting functions as an umbilical cord, a direct linear connection between mother and daughter, her and me, in the imagery (she is the patient behind the curtain).
The monotony, repetition, and duration of my craft explore the longevity of illness. Linear elements imply the passage of time, both in the making of the objects, as well as the time spent as a patient and a visitor.
Red Line, Digital Inkjet Print/Receipt Paper and Thread (2009)
Waiting rooms are filled with knitting and sewing, projects that distract from the emotions that sit below the surface. Craft projects serve as an important part of coping with a close family member being in the hospital. These activities keep the thoughts of someone dying at bay and keep onlookers from dwelling on the possibilities. The process is repetitive and comforting, keeping hands and the mind distracted.
I return to the hospital to install the altered hospital objects and document with photography and video. This is the ideal location for the objects to exist, even temporarily, however, the work can also exist outside as object, installation, or documentation. Suggested narratives are also implied in the hospital setups, with the documentation becoming the primary expression of these installations. In Red Line, an embroidered receipt role is installed in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. It is unclear why the long tape has been left about the room, if it is some form of data from a patient, and what occurred between the patient and the hospital staff.
Red Line (detail), Digital Inkjet Print/Receipt Paper and Thread (2009)
Does mental health or wellness factor into the creation of your work?
Artwork has always served as a way for me to process and understand events and feelings in my life. It has been a coping mechanism since I was young and more effective than talk therapy. It was the way I escaped living in a house with an alcoholic and abusive father and the divorce when it finally ended. I learned early on that art could be a way to provide clarity and comfort. I can also see the negative effects on my mental health and a general sense of self when art-making is lacking in my life.
Protective, Digital Inkjet Print/Embroidered Hospital Mask (2009)
Heart Monitor, Digital Inkjet Print (2009)
How did you begin this project?
I actually started working on this theme in undergrad through a project of still life table settings organized around medication, looking at the connection and organization of life around illness. This stemmed from my brother’s anti-seizure medication and long-term management of it. When my mother got sick my senior year, my process became more visceral and responsive to her surgery, in parallel to the abuse and mending that was happening to her body directly. The project continued to evolve in graduate school, becoming more metaphorical and installation-based.
Protective 2, Digital Inkjet Print/Embroidered Hospital Mask (2009)
Intravenous, Digital Inkjet Print/Embroidered IV Bag (2009)
Was the process of creating this project helpful for dealing with the emotion you're describing in your images?
Yes absolutely! As I mentioned, art-making has always served as a way to understand events and process emotions and is very therapeutic for me in that way. This project was also a way to talk and process with my mother. I learned a lot about her experience and it brought us closer.
What is your relationship to photography?
It has always been one tool in my toolbox for art-making. I tend to bounce around between mediums, using whatever best conveys my concept. Photography is great for focusing the viewer’s attention and creating narrative. Documentation of installations and portraiture are the primary ways I have used it and I enjoy working in series with it.
Ingest, Digital Inkjet Print/Fabric from Hospital Gown, Thread (2009)
Has the pandemic shifted the way you approach your work and/or photography at all?
Unfortunately yes, it has further limited the time and availability for personal art projects that was already reduced with working full time and having two small children. It has been interested to reflect on this project through the lens of the pandemic and having a different connection to masks, access to healthcare, and associated costs. The pandemic has further reinforced how vulnerable our current healthcare structure is, the risk to those without insurance or funds to afford it, and the need for a universal model.
Thank you so much to Jennifer Wilkey for taking the time to speak with Too Tired Project. You can explore more of her work on her website.