Untitled 2

London: 2023

1 photographic print: 510mm x 690 mm

The substance in Untitled 2 remains a mystery: a magic elixir seductive and glistening upon the skin. A provocative celebration of HRT gel. In UnBecoming, Jenny Lewis explores her experience living with a chronic invisible illness while simultaneously navigating the unknown territory of menopause. These themes remain taboo in our wider cultural consciousness, often stigmatised and surrounded by shame. The still life responds to personal experiences and histories in order to confront the politics of gender, representation and the medically unexplained.

Wellcome Collection also holds After Gluck and Untitled 1 from the series UnBecoming.

Series: UnBecoming

Artist Statement: UnBecoming documents and conceptualises the artist's experience living with a chronic invisible illness while simultaneously navigating the unknown territory of menopause. By confronting the politics of gender, representation and the medically unexplained, Lewis seeks to shift topics which are often stigmatised and surrounded by shame, bringing them to the fore of our cultural consciousness. Both chronic illness and menopause have long been ignored by the media, culture at large and the medical-industrial complex, rendering women and AFAB people alone in the dark. The artist explores this changing state and the inability of the self to be contained and fixed through a combination of photography, collage and installation, playing with direct and indirect illusions. Through Lewis’ work, we are offered encounters with identity that grapple with in-betweenness and liminality of life in a constant state of becoming through unbecoming.

This is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Requests to view uncatalogued material are considered on a case by case basis. Please contact collections@wellcomecollection.org for more details.

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Wellcome Collection