BLOOD WORKS

I was diagnosed with autoimmune disease in 2009. Beyond the many symptoms associated with my disease, I was tasked with getting my blood drawn on a monthly basis. I also just happnen to have a enormous fear of needles. So, in order to cope with this life-sentence of both disease and lab tests, I started taking macro images of the leftover blood splatters on the monthly cotton swabs. Turning the blood splatters into abstractions was an exorcism of sorts, attempting to shed the tyranny that these tiny blood dots and their corresponding lab results have on my life. As if the closer and closer I get to it, the blood was rendered powerless, and I regained my freedom from it.

These turned out to be quite impressive and served the purpose of distracting me from the pain of it. Concurrently, I also made self-portraits, as an attempt to capture the myriad of moods that followed each test and the forthcoming test results. These tasks resulted in a hefty archive of macro shots and portraits.

On the occasion of a show at the Bonita Museum in San Diego following an invitation from curator, Vallo Riberto, I created a collage piece (30 x 30 in), consisting of photocopy prints of the macro images onto which I hand-stenciled test results in acyrlic paint. These were then applied with glue on top of photocopy prints of my portraits. I also edited a looping frame-by-frame video piece (TRT 1 min 25 seconds) incorporating the macro shots alongside collaged with portraits.

Image from Rule 42 Catalogue

Installation view of Blood Works (Single Screen Video Loop + 30x30 Canvas) at Rule 42, Bonita Museum, San Diego, CA // Image courtesy of Kaz Maslanka