Sugar Works: An Artistic Exploration of Diabetes

Abstract

My visual work articulates the complexity of chronic illness by exploring personal implications of medical treatment. I manipulate sugar in ways that reflect my own experiences as a diabetic. Using sugar allows me to situate social, emotional and sensory experiences within an organic material that changes over time. I use sugar in forms that are vulnerable to the environment and ultimately deteriorate. This fragility and slow-motion-loss embody the emotional consequences of treating diabetes and evoke common experiences of unpredictability and hyper-vigilance. From this studio practice I designed an arts-based research study to teach sugar pulling to diabetic patients. This study supports participants as they develop the language and metaphors needed to articulate their social and emotional experiences. By emphasizing patient perspectives this study contributes to the understanding of patient compliance, self-care and diabetes support. Both my visual work and this study leverage the material properties of sugar to enable meaning-making and increase visibility for the social and emotional aspects of living with diabetes. Through experiencing my work in these two forms, I hope viewers will find a neutral space to contemplate the contradiction and uncertainty that often emerges alongside chronic illness.