CODA expresses the implications of visceral pain and the body politics of the female reproductive system.
Pain is a physical sensation that one experiences when our body warns us of a problem. Although tangible, till now there isn’t a medically standardised way to qualify one’s subjective sensation of physical pain, let alone use it to diagnose illnesses. In western society, our physical pain is something to be hidden, tucked away from view, and with time, our bodies even make us forget the pain so that we can be productive again.
The work consists of 622 syringes used to inject artificial chemicals and hormones into my body over a period of 12 months as I underwent IVF treatment to create and sustain a pregnancy, in order to produce a baby. These are only a portion of the injections I endured, not forgetting numerous needles for blood samples given in exchange for more chemicals to be injected into my body.
For those of us with a female reproductive system, physical pain is inflicted upon us, not by choice, but by our biology. Our genetics code pain into us before we are even conscious, mapping out a future of monthly pain cycles. When our systems don’t function as they should, we sometimes end up choosing to inflict more pain upon our bodies in order to force them into reproductivity – our bodies thus become sites of experimentation, leading to contention, trauma, control and even abuse.
CODA expresses the implications of visceral pain and the body politics of the female reproductive system. For someone like me who has algophobia (fear of pain) as a result of having severe endometriosis at a very young age, it is a physical recording to remind me of the sensations of pain I went through, helping me appreciate my body’s ability to bear pain, and a ‘coda’ to a particular chapter of my life, as I embark on the next one with an additional little one.
