Gallery Program
The Body Works: Love Letters from The Peoples’ heART
October 22, 2024 - April 25, 2025
On display at the Second Floor Connector Gallery and Stanley Building Lobby
The Peoples’ heART (Health Equity x Art) is a project dedicated to exploring health equity and addressing health disparities through art. By curating art installations in healthcare spaces in partnership with area communities, they are able to highlight relevant topics in equity and use art and design to reimagine healthcare. The Body Works highlights prints from two Peoples’ heART projects: Jessica Skintges Wallach’s series The Body is Good and Darlene Devita and Sarah Putnam’s People of Chelsea.
The Body Is Good is an invitation to reimagine space as a love letter to the body. Jessica’s artwork explores the lived experiences of being disabled in the 21st century as a way of creating a love letter to the body. By modifying the frame of her lens with handcrafted stencils she draws our attention to everyday objects and creates fluidity by superimposing the stencils onto large, colorful soap bubbles. Her work calls us to challenge our perceptions. “I want people to remember that the body, in all its diversity and complexity, is good,” says the artist.
The People of Chelsea project was born from a deep love of the city just across the harbor. Photographer Darlene DeVita and writer Sarah Putnam teamed up to pay homage to those who make the city work every day, across ages, experiences, and languages. The project provides a meaningful departure from the disaster-oriented media narratives about Chelsea. Through strong local collaborations, we celebrate a community that is so much more than its pandemic losses: a Chelsea that is resilient, creative, courageous and just.
Image caption: Jessica Skintges Wallach, All of me/Disability Joy, 2022.
