Show Statement October 8, 2007

“Don’t turn your head. Keep looking at the bandaged place. That’s where the Light enters you.”

-Rumi-

 

Our bodies often serve as the physical manifestation of our “bandaged place”. The immediacy of the body makes it an easy dumping ground for displaced emotions.  We starve, hate, binge, exhaust, purge, judge, cut, and reject our sensory selves in hope of numbing our pain. These misguided attempts are fruitless because they presuppose that the body is the source of the pain, rather than a metaphor for our inner wounds. Body dissatisfaction is a cue to move our awareness to our bandaged place.

 
The body, a symbol of our mortality and our precious imperfection, is a beautiful starting place for cultivating compassion. Rather than waging war on the body for its perceived flaws, listen closely to its wise whispers. These whispers remind us of the body’s bountiful stories and secrets, hard-won insight, and capacity to ingest the sensory wonders of the world.

 
The courageous artists of the Love Your Body show have chosen to share their bandaged places with you. Don’t turn your head. These artists offer you their stories so that you might find deeper understanding and compassion. Perhaps you will be moved to stare into your own bandaged place until you grow well acquainted with the rawness of your wound. Only then can you begin to peel back the bandage and invite the Light in.

-Sara Yates-

Description of the Love Your Body Show

I began the Love Your Body show to encourage healing by inviting artists to share their stories. We live in a culture in which people go to great lengths to hide their pain. Secrecy intensifies feelings of isolation and shame. It takes courage to step forward, but I think honesty facilitates healing both for the individual and for the community. My goal is to offer participating artists a compassionate and respectful venue in which to share their stories. I hope that artists will find speaking out to be empowering, and I hope they will be proud to know that their brave work is helping members of the community to face their own struggles and increase their understanding of sensitive body issues.

Some of the art displayed in the Love Your Body show celebrates body diversity and urges viewers to embrace the bodies they were born with. I find this work to be quite heartening in a culture where body-dissatisfaction is a norm. These artists offer the gift of a fresh perspective: It is perfectly acceptable to love your body the way it is!

Other pieces displayed in the show emphasize the pain encountered on the journey towards making peace with the body. This work is valuable because it breaks the silence. People tend to hide their histories of abuse, eating disorders, or self-injury due to a sense of shame. Those with disabilities often feel invisible because people try so hard “not to notice” the disability that they ignore the individual. I invite the community to stare at these artists’ courageous work until they are able to see the person behind the pain, the soul within the body.

-Sara Yates-