Temporality of Survival: A Portrait of Cancer (Work-in-Progress Showing)

Temporality of Survival: A Portrait of Cancer is a new autobiographical work by Caitlyn Swett that dares to depict an experience of cancer through multi-media performance.

"Cancer is a rare and still scandalous subject for poetry; and it seems unimaginable to aestheticize the disease." – Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor

Inspired by writer-survivors Audre Lorde, Anne Boyer, Walela Nehanda, and Caitlin Breedlove, Caitlyn Swett’s upcoming performance adds her experience of cancer to the slim record of brutally-honest accounts told by survivors themselves.

As cancer, and its treatment, is an immersive, multi-sensory encounter, the performance utilizes movement/embodiment, soundscape, and layered imagery to portray this deeply personal and nuanced experience. Facing her personal journey head-on while confronting cultural attitudes about cancer, Caitlyn’s latest performance gives voice to what goes unspoken, seeking to metabolize trauma while providing a poetic context for audiences to understand what a living experience of illness and mortality is like from the inside.

The May 11, 7PM showing at Shadowbox Studio will share the work in-progress.

Collaborators:

Brian Howe (video collage/projection), Sarah Ingel (Costume Design), Zap McConnell (Dramaturgy), Julia Pleasants & Shannon Drake (soundscape contributors)

Huge Thanks:

This work would not be possible without the generous practices of Culture Mill: the gifting

of their studio space and their investment and belief in artists and the stories they tell.

This project is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department

of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts

and Durham Arts Council, local grants administrator.

Host or Publisher Culture Mill