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Wrote for the September issue of @frieze_magazine about the idea of the religious Ex-Voto as corporeal effigy in the work of artists who explore intersections of illness, gender and race. Featuring Jesse Darling, Diamond Stingily, Julia Phillips and the late Donald Rodney. 1/
Jesse Darling's warped support aids and anthropomorphic hospital equipment resist what medical objects often symbolise to patients; they offer another analysis of hospital spaces and treatment rooms, and the capitalist nature of medicine. 2/
Comfort Station (2017), steel, aluminium, rubber and lacquer, by Jesse Darling 3/
Epistemologies (shamed cabinet), 2018, mahogany, glass, steel, linen, archival binders, concrete, by Jesse Darling 4/
Diamond Stingily's 2017 Surveillance show dealt with issues of systemic racism and police surveillance in urban African American communities. It includes dolls based on older traditions; anonymised figures that could be trying to stay apart from a culture that oppresses them. 5/
'Hergott Dolls' (2017) by Diamond Stingily 6/
Julia Phillips' 'Operator 1, Blinder, Muter, Penetrator, Aborter' (2017) - salt glazed ceramics, brass screws, stainless steel plate, metal wheel table - is a reminder that medical tools used to heal and fix the body can be repurposed as objects of torture and control. 7/
I've wanted to write about Donald Rodney for a long time. His work, his short life and huge potential. Rodney's work tackles inequality across illness, disability and race, and he was way ahead of many artists in using technology in his work. 8/
Psalms (1997) compromised Rodney's own motorised wheelchair, to which he added a neural computer. It moved around the gallery, mapping the space, a physical representation of the artist who was too ill to attend his own launch. (Rodney died age 36, in 1998) 9/
'In The House of My Father', 1996-97. The house - a symbol of home and security - is made from Rodney's own skin, removed during his treatment for sickle cell anaemia, a disease that disproportionately affects people of colour. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rodney-in-the-house-of-my-father-p78529 10/
Much of Rodney's work tackles racism, and I thought about Rodney's 'Light box' (1998) a lot during this year's #BlackLivesMatter 
protests. It features a famous photo of @LFC footballer John Barnes back-heeling a banana skin thrown at him during a game against Everton in 1988. 11/
protests. It features a famous photo of @LFC footballer John Barnes back-heeling a banana skin thrown at him during a game against Everton in 1988. 11/
If bodies, ex-votos, race, medical capitalism and disability are of interest, this piece is in September's @frieze_magazine. Not all pieces go online, but now is a good time to support magazines by subscribing. (There's a fancy Frieze tote if you do). https://shopcc.frieze.com/products/subscription?_ga=2.203811415.614079526.1598352181-1074311288.1597939782 12/
Also, Frieze arrange all contributor bios by horoscope.
