Sexuality, body image and ovarian cancer

The artist, the lover and the doctor/oncologist have a particular interest in the human form as an object of gaze and touch, where gender and desire offer an undercurrent of agendas. Objectified and silenced by doctors' primarily interested in talking symptoms, ten women diagnosed with ovarian cancer share images and stories of their experiences. Here, conscious and subconscious memories blur boundaries between mind and body, defining self-identity.

Weaving together art therapy and feminism, this interdisciplinary qualitative study (in progress) records women's visual and textual experience of being diagnosed, and living with ovarian cancer. The ways in which women's artwork, visual diaries, conversational mapping and creative writing records and makes visible a fresh perception of the biological and psychological processes of ovarian cancer and of their female identity during this transformative time is being studied.

The study also examines the contemporary cultural meanings of femininity and sexuality, and explores ways in which these forms of knowledge might influence participant's self- representation and personal narratives.

These women are struggling to find an appropriate language that will capture their ways of being, seeing and becoming in the world. They provide a new perception of women with ovarian cancer that may engage our spirits and capture our imagination.