The Body Remembers

This installation piece is a part of thesis project that explores the lived experience of women who have undergone mastectomies due to breast cancer, focusing on the tension between physical loss and a continued sense of bodily wholeness.

Bras were altered to correspond precisely with each individual’s site of loss, then processed in a darkroom onto photographic paper to produce negative impressions of the absent forms. These garments were subsequently installed on a large suspended fabric, forming a collective representation of community and shared experience.

The developed images were displayed on the wall, while the fabric installation was positioned three feet in front of it. Light cast through the altered bras projected onto the wall beside the photographic negatives, creating a visual dialogue between presence and absence. This interplay of light and shadow mirrors the dualities inherent in the experience of breast cancer: the physical and psychological struggle, the oscillation between hope and mortality, and the ongoing negotiation of identity.