The Journey Towards Netherness: Exploring Endometriosis Experiences in and through an Improvisational Creative Praxis

Monthly disabling pelvic and back pain; burns from heating pads on the abdomen; years of untreatable migraines; a decade of suffering before diagnosis; seven surgeries; multiple organ removals; four rounds of IVF; visible and invisible scars; litres of red, black, and brown blood. These depictions reveal my ongoing, ever-fluctuating journey with endometriosis. My experiences with this debilitating and incurable disease echo the clandestine torment endured by one in ten women (including individuals assigned female at birth who might identify otherwise). Inspired by veiled narratives of female pain, this doctoral research explores lived-body experiences of endometriosis through a methodological framework which connects improvisation with theory from feminist and disability studies. Specifically, the research expands concepts like maternal interruption, disorientation, and dissonant disability to encompass the female pain experiences of endometriosis. Considering these linkages, the practice focuses on exploring collaboration, crip time, and an improvisational presence (including embodied strategies like somatic consciousness, adaptability, or reverence for the unknown). Through solo art-making and a series of interactive exchanges with five other endo sufferers, the research discovers novel insights, language, and articulations related to this condition. Over time, and through a dynamic interplay between theory and practice, individual and collective pain journeys were woven into an exploratory body of work which contains small painting studies, narrative and reflective writing, performance art films, and movement improvisation studies. Eventually, the research practice culminated in a live-art concept entitled Nether Space(s), a painscape which blends body-painting, poetry, dance, and an original sound-score. Additionally, the research’s accumulating insights yield a pivotal revelation: the concept of netherness. Netherness serves as a framework for shifting or ‘cripping’ art-making and life practices to honour and reflect the realities of navigating endometriosis pain. Its creative threads include embodied dissonance/liminality, non-vertical spatial orientations, and unconventional energies or temporalities. Experimenting with and refining these endo-centric idiosyncrasies was integral to the unfurling of Nether Space(s). In disseminating the evolution of Nether Space(s) and the inception of netherness, this thesis becomes a testament to the creative power of engaging with the disruption, disorientation, invisibility, and scars of endometriosis. Through critical writing, introspection, poetry, photography, and film documentation, the capacity of endo-centric artistic research to provoke, empower, connect, and transform is unveiled.

Author dc:creator

• March, Kate

• Feminism
• Gender studies
• Fine Art

Statement dc:rights

• cc_by_nc_nd

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

March, Kate <https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/view/creators/March=3AKate=3A=3A.html> (2024) The Journey Towards Netherness: Exploring Endometriosis Experiences in and through an Improvisational Creative Praxis. PhD thesis, University of the Arts London.

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk:23392