What’s so specific about … performance artists with Chemical Sensitivities
"For a performance artist, several
difficulties occur when he/she gets Chemical Sensitivities.
First of all, the material that has been in the center
of performing – in my case these were fabrics – can
become dangerous. I was injured by laundering 40
military blankets that were laced with mothballs
in order to prepare them for an exhibition I was
working on at the time. Before that, I had been diagnosed
with reactive airways disease (RADS) in the nineties. I
practiced avoidance of my triggers for the most
part but did not feel that my life was radically altered.
Since becoming full-blown MCS, I have steered
away from working with fabric which was the basis
of my performance work for the ten years prior
to getting ill. My life has been radically altered
and I’m still trying to re-invent myself as an artist
but the truth is: I want to carry forward with the work
I knew and loved before I got sick. But I’m no
longer that person and I can no longer see the world through
the eyes of a person who is not chemically injured
because it’s now part of who and what I am. Like so
many of us, I am finding new directions as an artist" (Julie Laffin, dress performance artist from
Chicago, USA)