Davina Kirkpatrick and Dolores Steinman explore ageing, hysteria, long Covid, global transient amnesia and brain fog. With serious play creating the ineffable, visual metaphors, and the materialisation of the ephemeral through collaborative writing, printmaking, film, sculpture and gift giving, they share their perceptions, insights and sensitivities braided together during a
months-long collaborative process. The artist and the scientist, with “alleged” different sensibilities, engaged in discovering and uncovering themselves and one another, exposing vulnerabilities and forming a symbiotic relationship.
Bios
Dr. Davina Kirkpatrick is an Artist, Researcher and Visiting Specialist in Medical Humanities at the Peninsula Medical School, University of Plymouth. Her background is in site-specific public art, socially engaged practice, and collaborative interdisciplinary projects that have involved national and international residencies, commissions and exhibitions. She has an MA in Multidisciplinary Print. Her PhD, from University of the West of England, focused on grief, loss and living with the presence of absence. Her Postdoctoral Creative Economy Engagement Fellowship, at University of Plymouth - Immersive Environments and Serious Play: New Initiatives for Patient Practitioner Interaction, explored pain.
Dr. Dolores Steinman was trained as a Paediatrician and, upon relocating to Canada, obtained her PhD in Cell Biology. Currently she is a retired Senior Research Associate in the Biomedical Simulation Laboratory, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto, part of an interdisciplinary team, also affiliated with the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Following her training in the Visual Arts Department at Western University, she also volunteered Docent at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In her current work, Dolores continues to observe the rapport and connection between medical research and lived experiences.