BELLY 

“That piece of toast hurt. Scratching in the insides that are pustule and creamy and pinky”

Belly is a multimedia, interactive video by artist Amy Wright that explores her experience of colonoscopies, and the physical manifestations of chronic illness within the body.

Through a CGI journey that gradually reveals text, Belly leads you through the muscular interior wall of the large intestine to consider how illness fundamentally changes our relationship to the world.

When diagnosed with a chronic illness at the age of 18, Amy was thrust into a world of poking, side-effects and embarrassment; embarrassment that her body had let itself down; embarrassment about the procedures being done to her; and embarrassment that it’s all about her insides and bowel habits. 

 

Hospital Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diagnosis 

 

“Sick Woman Theory redefines existence in a body as something that is primarily and always vulnerable”

Sick Woman Theory, by Johanna Hedva

[See Full PDF]

 

 

Influenced by the work of artist Johanna Hedva and philosopher Judith Butler, Amy explores how both the visible and invisible can be political by making a very personal experience public.

Initially existing as the text ‘tight goes in hurts’, Amy experimented with found footage of someone else’s colonoscopy, before working with CGI designer Sarah Bloomey to make a digital recreation of this intimate procedure. The result is an immersive 360 video that allows you to turn and explore the cave-like, fleshy interior of this intimate private space.

 

 

Installation images from ‘Are you well’ and ‘Belly’

 

Belly works to reclaim the agency our bodies lose when navigating the bureaucratic, yet intimate, systems of health care. Through combining digital technology with the human body, it is a playful exploration of something that has seriously impacted Amy’s life.

 

INTERACTIVE VIDEO

Discover Belly at your own pace. Scroll and drag with your cursor to rotate and explore. Headphones are recommended. Belly was shown alongside two other video works in an Online Screening as part of On Repeat.

Read the full text ‘tight goes in hurts’ here.

We shared elements from this exhibition, and the rest of our programme across our digital platforms. To get a sense of the live programme check out our highlights on Instagram.

 
 

AMY WRIGHT

Amy Wright is an artist living and working in London. Her work is about the body as a political space of control; a body that deviates from expected norms and where illness ruptures accepted ways of looking at the world. She graduated from the Royal College of Art, 2021

Amy’s work has been shown in exhibitions in England, Wales, and The Netherlands, including NTS (2019), South Kiosk (2020), Montez Press radio (2021) and Bermondsey Project Space (2022). She has attended residencies at DOOResidency (2021) and TNCE (2016).