object illustration | editorial | workshops | collaboration | research | teaching
object illustration | editorial | workshops | collaboration | research | teaching
Trigger Warning: This autoethnographic object illustration practice explores body dissatisfaction and bulimia within the childhood home.
Audience discretion is advised.
Autoethnography is a qualitative research method that creatively and reflexively examines personal experience within a cultural context to connect with audiences and contribute to research.
These autoethnographic object illustrations are part of my practice-based PhD research at the Belfast School of Art. They embody my subjective experience, shaped by my sexed, raced, classed, gendered, and disabled identity within sociostructural systems of power. Whiteness informs Western (hegemonic) body ideals, as well as how we research and understand body image. The body image-related findings of this research are not generalisable, but the object- and practice-based findings are.
The liminal object illustrations, which mimic tableware, enabled a workshop design in which the table functioned on multiple levels: connecting multiple theoretical threads and presenting participants with un/familiar objects within an un/familiar setting, to destabilise meanings and certainties. Over food, groups of women in Northern Ireland engaged in critical discussion and making objects at the table. The women’s communicative objects question and push back on body image pressures and ideals, continuing the conversation through a collaborative exhibition.
If you are affected by the issues raised by this work, please reach out to:
Eating Disorders Association Northern Ireland
All photographs and artwork on this website (and the associated thesis) are taken by and are the copyright of the author unless stated otherwise. The copyright of the photographs of the original object illustrations and paper illustrations published on this website (and the associated thesis) remains with the author, and permission must be obtained to reproduce any image for non-commercial or commercial use. The illustrator-author retains copyright of participant objects, but does not claim authorship. Reproducing images of participant objects is not permitted.
Beverley Irving-Edwards, inclined to run, 2022, porcelain, glaze, ceramic decals, Between Matter and Words exhibition, Belfast. © Beverley Irving-Edwards. Photograph courtesy of Philip Arneill
The text reads: The text reads: clock ticking away, she was so tired. Inclined to run.
Relevant websites:
https://www.philiparneill.com/
Beverley Irving-Edwards, no good would come of interfering, 2022, porcelain, glaze and ceramic decals, 19 cms x 18.5 cms, Between Matter and Words exhibition, Belfast. © Beverley Irving-Edwards. Photograph courtesy of Philip Arneill.
The text reads: seemed to know something was the matter; “No good would come of interfering,” childhood among the troop.
Relevant websites:
Between Matter and Words
Philip Arneill
Beverley Irving-Edwards, here to learn, 2022, porcelain, glaze and ceramic decals, I, object exhibition, Belfast. © Beverley Irving-Edwards.
The text reads: The text reads: since she was a baby, one of themselves, here to learn, unconscious of her ‘I am’.
Beverley Irving-Edwards, Untitled, 2021, porcelain, glaze and decals, Liverpool. © Beverley Irving-Edwards.
The text reads: (left:) Unconscious of her “I am.” (right:) profound silence.
Beverley Irving-Edwards, disagreeable, 2022, porcelain, glaze and ceramic decal, 15 cm x 8.5 x 10 cm, Liverpool. © Beverley Irving-Edwards.
The text reads: “Why won’t you speak to me?” “That I cannot tell you either.”
Beverley Irving-Edwards, just let me sit still, 2022, porcelain, glaze and ceramic decals, I, object exhibition, Belfast. © Beverley Irving-Edwards.
The text reads: just let me sit still, it makes me forget.
Beverley Irving-Edwards, things to talk about, 2022, porcelain, glaze, ceramic decals, 18.5 cm x 2.5 cm x 1.5 cm and 20 cm x 3 cm x 2 cm, Liverpool. © Beverley Irving-Edwards.
The text reads: things to talk about. I cannot tell you half. I will never say again.
Beverley Irving-Edwards, shattered, 2022, porcelain, glaze and ceramic decals, 25 cm x 22 cm, Liverpool. © Beverley Irving-Edwards.
The text reads: I don’t; and I don’t, I don’t think I want, I want to talk about. things to talk about. I cannot tell you half. I’ll never say again.