Language
English (en)
Date of Award
5-7-2025
Degree Name
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Abstract
Reconciling life within a body defined by fragility, I create worlds of connectivity to embody and refigure Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (cEDS)–a connective-tissue disorder causing hypermobile joints, fragile skin, easy bruising, and poor wound healing. Large-format oil paintings employ a multi-layer method, layering paint like skin to reform the body onto canvas. Drawing on Surrealist automatic processes and theories of unconscious production, my methodology combines intuitive, process-based mark-making with traditional oil painting techniques and experimental material practices to subvert and reassert artistic agency, weaving between control and surrender. Scientific imagery, particularly SHG imaging of cEDS collagen tissue, informs a visual language that melds art and science in incidental and intentional biological mimicry and mimesis. The grotesque in art provides a theoretical framework through which I reclaim power with material and process-based abstractions of mind-body dissonance. As biomorphic constructions defy personification and traditional figuration, I negotiate cycles of growth and decay and traverse liminal convexities between body, space, and ecology. Building a world through iterative creation, my thesis engages discourses from Petra Kuppers, Lennard Davis, and N. Ann Davis surrounding invisible disability representation. I expand beyond visual markers of disability to expose physical and psychological realities while encouraging my art to grow beyond itself into a self-reflexive ecosystem of abstraction. Process becomes power as my practice weaves biomorphic ecosystems wherein body and environment coalesce, transforming personal experience into a visual language that mirrors how those with invisible disabilities are shaped by—but grow beyond—our diagnoses.
Mentor/Primary Advisor
Jamie Adams
Recommended Citation
Macaulay, Chloe S., "Held Together, Falling Apart: Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome as Embodied Abstraction" (2025). Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers. 124.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bfa/124