The Waiting Room: lost and found is a national dialog that examines women's health issues, healthcare broadly and access, through aesthetic, scientific, cultural, political, economic and literary lenses.
The project includes an interactive, multimedia traveling exhibition, book, public survey,
data visualizations, public events, performances, lectures, web and Facebook pages.
As a conceptual framework for this exploration, the medical waiting room provides a psychologically rich context. This is the place where people wait to interface with the
medical system, where patients are processed before testing, diagnosis, consultation
or treatment begins. Evoking this environment is a series of distinct tableaux. The focal
point of each is a hybridized chair composed of found and sculptural elements that
embody a particular health issue. “Lost” and/or “Found” items of specifically designed, ambiguously functioning clothing are traces of inhabitants past and future. Visitors are
invited to sit adjacent to each sculptural chair on a ‘blank,’ unaltered chair, where they
can listen to recorded interview excerpts and sound compositions that provide intimate
and expanded perspectives, or multiple ‘voices’ for each health issue. In this position,
viewers are made participants in the waiting community.
Installation views
Exquisite Suffering: A Review of “The Waiting Room”
Exhibition announcement
Book release
The project includes an interactive, multimedia traveling exhibition, book, public survey,
data visualizations, public events, performances, lectures, web and Facebook pages.
As a conceptual framework for this exploration, the medical waiting room provides a psychologically rich context. This is the place where people wait to interface with the
medical system, where patients are processed before testing, diagnosis, consultation
or treatment begins. Evoking this environment is a series of distinct tableaux. The focal
point of each is a hybridized chair composed of found and sculptural elements that
embody a particular health issue. “Lost” and/or “Found” items of specifically designed, ambiguously functioning clothing are traces of inhabitants past and future. Visitors are
invited to sit adjacent to each sculptural chair on a ‘blank,’ unaltered chair, where they
can listen to recorded interview excerpts and sound compositions that provide intimate
and expanded perspectives, or multiple ‘voices’ for each health issue. In this position,
viewers are made participants in the waiting community.
Installation views
Exquisite Suffering: A Review of “The Waiting Room”
Exhibition announcement
Book release