Sick of being Patient | Portfolio-Projects

Portfolio & Projects

Assisted Self-Portrait Series

‘Assisted self-portraits’ is a collaborative photo story created in May 2020 by Charlie Fitz and Oscar Vinter. The photo story was first published in the Able Zine newsletter.

Participation in Isolation - performances

My contribution to the open call put out by British Indian, multidisciplinary artist Rupi Dhillon. Asking artists in isolation due to the pandemic to create a performance a day during April. Creating a large participatory art piece together. Explore here.

Be Patient collage series

'Be patient', is a collage series, reflecting on medical trauma. Whilst the portraits were taken by my partner artist Oscar Vinter. I have recontextualized them in digital collages as self- portraits, they affirm being visible as a sick person as a radical act; a resistance against being silenced. Explore here.

Knowing Oscar, a photo story

This photo story explores the intimacy of photography and the relationship between the photographer and the subject.

Explore the photo story here.

Undressing Trauma

This series explores... (Page is currently under-construction).

Sheila Blood and Other Stories

‘Sheila Blood and Other Stories’ is a collaborative photo story created in 2018 by Oscar Vinter and Charlie Fitz. The photo story explores the absurdity of life and injustice at the intersections of race, gender and disability. Explore here.

Being seen

‘Being Seen’ is a collaborative photo story created in 2018 by Oscar Vinter and Charlie Fitz. It came about as a by-product of working through feelings of powerlessness in the face of ableism. The photo story explores the dynamics of invisible and visible disability in the private and public sphere. Explore here.

But you don't look sick

A multi-media series created in 2019 exploring sickness and body image, aiming to dismantle perceptions of what sickness should or does look like.Explore here.

I do nothing

A multi-media series created by Charlie Fitz and Oscar Vinter in 2019. The pressure to perform a narrow understanding of disability in public places to avoid confrontation. Explore here.

Painting in pain

Painting as pain relief, painting as distraction, painting as compulsion, painting in and about pain. (Page is currently under-construction).

Bodies in parts

A series of sculptures from 2015 - 2019 exploring how illness can fragment identity and alienate the self from the body.

Explore here.

I have always made art, written poetry, documented my experiences as a compulsion to help me understand and cope with the world, until recently I would destroy most of this work. Since I was child painting, sculpting and collage have been a neccesity to my mental wellbeing but I never saw the products as something to be treasured or shown. I was never fully comfortable with others seeing my work, as the process of creating was so intimate and personal the idea of letting others in terrified me. I also felt as though I did not deserve to make art, I was not worthy.

I now understand this is down to imposter syndrome, in which I never feel worthy of the platform. I always feel inadequate, this has come about by years of not being believed as a teenager who was a victim of sexual violence, not believed by instutions that were meant to protect me. And this silencing has continued as a young disabled woman with chronic illness. In which I have continually been silenced and not been believed as a credible witness to my own bodily experience, I, therefore, have not felt my own narratives were worthy of a platform. This imposter syndrome, driven by internalised sexism and ableism towards myself is something I have tried to tackle and fight against by creating online collections of the works that survived in spite of my impulse towards destruction and solo and collaborative works I have created, or projects I have been part of whilst addressing this impulse.

I am currently working on a series called 'Undressing Trauma' in which I am exploring this cyclical silencing, my work aims to resist this feeling of being an 'imposter' for myself and other sick and/or disabled people as our lived experiences are vital to resisting and challenging the spaces and societies we inhabit. Our voices are valid.