Attenborough Arts Centre Presents: ‘Out of the Blue: Landscapes of Chronic Illness’ by Joanna Holland

Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester is proud to announce our upcoming exhibition, ‘Out of the Blue: Landscapes of Chronic Illness’ by artist Joanna Holland. Her first solo exhibition shares her lived experience of chronic illness. Part real and part imagined artworks collectively contemplate what it is to live ‘a life disrupted’ by offering an insight into autoimmunity.

Through photographs, video, soundscapes and text from different bodies of work created over the last three years, she invites audiences to view her lived experience through the lens of a specific encounter.

“Several years ago, I suddenly lost all my colour vision – apart from the colour blue. A blue so vivid that it hurt to look at it. I didn’t know at the time, but I was experiencing cyanopsia (everything tinted with blue) and photophobia (extreme light sensitivity). A possible rare side effect of immunosuppressant medication. My vision returned but this experience has had a profound effect on my practice.” – Joanna Holland

The artworks in this exhibition share very real experiences of diagnosis, medication, side effects, chronic fatigue, hospitalisation, and the impact of [in]visible disability on family life. They also explore an interconnectedness with nature, and the complex entanglements between self, planetary health, climate change and biodiversity loss. Through this exhibition Joanna hopes to raise awareness of both chronic illness / [in]visible disability and the precarious future of our planet.

The exhibition will run from Friday, 28 July to Sunday, 8 October in Gallery 2 of Attenborough Arts Centre. More information about the exhibition.