MALLORY  SHOTWELL

Artist Statement

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I have always known cancer. My mother, Molly, lived with metastatic breast cancer for eight years before her passing in 2005. I carry the CHEK2 genetic mutation, which significantly increases my own risk of breast cancer. Over the past 25 years, I have undergone four mastectomy surgeries, twelve MRIs, twelve 3D mammograms, and countless moments of waiting—waiting for answers, waiting for test results, waiting for the next step. This will continue throughout my life, as my body remains in a perpetual state of surveillance and uncertainty.

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Breast cancer is not just a set of statistics, though the numbers are staggering: one in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime—that’s one person every two minutes. But it is more than those individuals. It is their families, their friends, and their communities who are deeply affected, reshaped, and marked by this disease. What we see in media and awareness campaigns often reduces breast cancer to sanitized narratives of triumph or tragedy, leaving little room for the messy, raw, and deeply personal realities of living with this disease and its possibility.

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The stories I have heard over the years share one refrain: "Am I alone?" This question underscores a collective need for connection and understanding, for spaces where the complexities of the breast cancer experience can be shared honestly. As an artist, I feel a responsibility to respond to this need—not to inspire or simplify, but to hold, articulate, and honor the realities of breast cancer and the many lives it touches.

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This multi-year project collects and amplifies over 1,500 voices from across the United States and ten countries, highlighting the experiences of breast cancer patients, survivors, previvors, and those with genetic predispositions. Through interviews, workshops, and support groups, I am building a body of work that reflects these stories. The culmination of this process is Suspended Self: The Liminal Space of Breast Cancer, an exhibition that transforms personal narratives into visual and participatory art.

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Cancer, and the possibility of it, changes your perspective on life. It is deeply isolating but also communal. It is raw, vulnerable, and complicated. This project seeks to provide a space to hold these experiences, to connect those affected by breast cancer, and to foster deeper awareness, advocacy, and understanding. By confronting the in-between moments—between diagnosis and treatment, between fear and resilience—we can begin to hold these truths, talk about them, and move forward together.

 

Exhibition Statement

 

"Suspended Self: The Liminal Space of Breast Cancer" engages the collective and individual experiences of breast cancer through a participatory and multidisciplinary lens. Drawing on over 1,500 stories from across the United States and ten countries, this exhibition explores the nuanced physical, emotional, and societal spaces of living with breast cancer, at risk for the disease, or navigating life beyond diagnosis. The works in "Suspended Self" blur the boundaries between art, advocacy, and community, creating a site where deeply personal narratives are amplified into collective resonance.

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At the heart of the exhibition is an invitation to engage directly with these stories, which manifest in a wide array of media and forms. Large-scale drawings, such as those based on digital histopathology images of breast cancer cells, balance clinical precision with abstraction, grounding the viewer in both the microscopic realities of disease and its vast emotional scale. Immersive installations like "You Have Cancer" recreate the sensory and psychological impact of receiving a diagnosis, while "Waiting Gowns," a participatory textile installation, gives physical form to the burden of waiting—a shared experience marked by uncertainty and vulnerability.

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Interactivity is central to "Suspended Self." Visitors may try on weighted gowns inscribed with patient stories, listen to recorded voices through a rotary telephone in "(keep) in touch," or read, write, and send "Cancerland Postcards"—abstract landscapes created collaboratively with participants. These acts of participation transform the audience from observers into contributors, bridging the gaps between individual and collective experience.

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Thematic concerns of resilience, connection, and memory course through the exhibition. Works such as Scars, featuring embroidered post-surgical patterns on watercolor backdrops, and "At Least You Get a Free Boob Job," a sculpture critiquing cultural trivializations of mastectomies, explore the body as a site of trauma, healing, and transformation. In "How Are You?," layered transparencies reflect the complexity of expressing emotions during times of illness, while "If Cancer Was an Object" and photographic works transform participant-defined metaphors into physical and visual language.

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The scale and scope of "Suspended Self" make it a collective archive of the breast cancer experience, weaving together voices from diverse cultural and geographic contexts. Anchored by a resource center and complemented by public programming—including workshops, panel discussions, and a publication—the exhibition extends its reach beyond the gallery to foster dialogue and advocacy.

 

By centering lived experiences, "Suspended Self" challenges simplified narratives of illness as solely tragedy or triumph. Instead, it occupies the liminal: a space of ambiguity, resilience, and shared humanity. Through its participatory framework, the exhibition invites visitors to confront their own perceptions, fostering connection and care in the face of a global experience shaped by uncertainty and hope.