MALLORY  SHOTWELL

Each gown is inscribed with stories from breast cancer patients, survivors, and those at high genetic risk, describing the moments of waiting that punctuate their journeys. These include waiting for a diagnosis after genetic testing, anticipating biopsy results, enduring delays in treatment, and facing the existential uncertainty of living with or beyond cancer. To further emphasize these burdens, physical weights are sewn into some gowns, giving the abstract concept of “weight” a physical form that can be felt by viewers.

 

The Waiting Gowns are displayed on pedestals and mannequins, but their purpose extends beyond observation. Visitors are invited to wear the gowns, becoming active participants in the work. As they read the stories inscribed on the fabric and feel the literal weight pressing on their shoulders, they connect to the lived realities of those who endure these forms of waiting. The act of wearing the gowns transforms the viewer into both witness and participant, bridging the distance between personal experience and collective understanding.

 

The weight of the gowns embodies multiple dimensions:

• Physical Weight: The toll of treatments, surgeries, and prosthetics on the body.

• Emotional Weight: The anxiety, grief, and survivor’s guilt that linger beyond treatment.

• Psychological Weight: The mental burden of navigating medical decisions and coping with heightened awareness of mortality.

• Social Weight: The pressures of fulfilling responsibilities, maintaining relationships, and managing societal expectations.

• Financial Weight: The crushing cost of care, from treatments to post-recovery needs.

• Existential Weight: The uncertainty of living with a diagnosis, wondering about recurrence, and contemplating life’s fragility.

 

Through this work, the act of waiting is revealed not as a passive state but as a deeply active, often excruciating process shaped by fear, anticipation, and resilience. The stories collected and embedded into the gowns give voice to these often-invisible struggles, turning private moments into public dialogue.

 

Waiting Gowns is central to the mission of Suspended Self, bridging personal and collective narratives through participation and storytelling. By inviting viewers to see, read, and physically feel these experiences, the work fosters empathy and understanding while honoring the strength of those who carry the burden of waiting. This transformation of a clinical object into an evocative artistic statement underscores the complexity and humanity of living with cancer.