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Challenging Communication: group exhibition and experiential workshop from Living with Sexuality and Cancer at The Christie Hospital Manchester 15th February 2013

The exhibition was a collaboration with psychologist Dr Josie Butcher. The research was in response to a long term Government directive to develop the communication skills of professional health workers in particular to patients living with the impact of cancer on their sexuality. The work is form of art activism that is being used by the NHS to challenge the social and political power of professionals in relation to their patients. The language of textiles supports common understandings of purpose and also allows new readings and challenges through the context of presentation. The evaluations from the experiential workshop will contribute to future international conferences.

The work exhibited shows familiar objects reconfigured to deny their function. 'Distancing' or 'alienating' chairs through long extended arm-rests signifies discomfort. Boundaries are redefined by such restructuring, as in the human body after surgery for sexual cancers. The properness and tradition interwoven in the piece belies the difficulties of engaging with the objects. It functions as a metaphor for the way in which the properness of clinical spaces and health professionals can deny the communication of pain and embarrassment that follows surgery.

The research included a paper delivered at the Royal College of Art in the Design History Department that analysed the ideas relating to textiles and feminism in the making of the piece.

The work was a collaborative piece with Cheshire & Wirral partnership NHS foundation Trust and The Christies Hospital. A catalogue accompanied the exhibition published by the Trust, 24 pages, 14 colour illustrations