Harriet Sanderson

Statement

My research embraces the feminist stance, which recognizes the physical body as the primary maker of experience and identity. It centers on the powerful influence of chronic illness, aging and disability on self-identity. Feminism and disability rights, two parallel and intertwined civil rights movements, have each separately and together generated a dense theoretical conversation about who has the authority to represent otherness.

As do most, I act on the conviction that, when possible, the individual retains the right of authorship over one's own experiences. The meaning of the experience is not defined by the representation of the body, but rather one's interaction with the physical space and society. Therefore, while my images originate in my own experiences of illness and deformity, they are not representations of it. They are in fact confabulations of daily life, the result of the imagination engaged in situating itself within the existing social framework.

 

Naked - 2005/6 0:48

 

Last-Ditch - 2007 0:35

 

Tilt - 2007 0:59

 

Limbus - 2007 2:35