Sphere Dance

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project © Petra Vlčková - Multiple sclerosis in my body is scattered. © Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project View all images ↓
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In Sphere Dance, I explore the disease multiple sclerosis from the perspective of a bearer and an artist through staged photographs and visual metaphors. I transform reality into a dreamlike space where I reinterpret my own illness.

In my work Sphere Dance, I am exploring sclerosis multiplex, my autoimmune illness that I suffer from. As a bearer of the disease and an artist, I reflect on my own physical, cognitive and emotional experience with the disease through indirect cues and visual metaphors. I work with the theme of the disease in different layers that include my personal experience with treatment, contemplating on root causes (such as ancestral prerequisites) that led to the onset of the disease, exploring physical and mental changes of my own body and of myself as a woman. Rather I use indirect means of expression through staged photographs and collages rather than documentary photography, as I deem my experience with the illness hardly transferrable. But through the imaginative visual approach, I aim to create space for the spectators’ interpretation.

I have deliberately chosen the gold color as a symbolic way to depict my illness and its manifestation. By using gold, I refer to the fact that sclerosis multiplex is, in certain sense, precious, but unwanted, literally bringing suffering, conflict and even death, as the real gold often does. 

Experiencing the symptoms of my illness in daily life, I turn reality in my artwork into a dreamlike world. I also acknowledge the fragility of my own body through visualization of instability and lack of balance, as well as emotional struggles affecting relationships, work, leisure and even basic human functioning. Being aware of unfavorable prospects of the degenerative disease, existential questions also arise.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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During my stay at a spa for health recovery related to my illness, I encountered a rabbit during an evening walk through the grounds. The rabbit serves as a symbol, guiding me toward the pursuit of deeper knowledge and the exploration of hidden aspects of reality connected to my disease.

© Petra Vlčková - Multiple sclerosis in my body is scattered.
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Multiple sclerosis in my body is scattered.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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I created a family tree, pondering whether my illness had already existed in my lineage. Could I have inherited it genetically? Could my family have unknowingly fostered this disease? Is it a coincidence? Is the disease controlled? Who is responsible for the illness? Can familial ties predetermine the disease? Could my disease have been developing in the past through family members?

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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I have a feeling that the death of Grandpa Břeťa influenced my illness. He was a grandfather I loved incredibly, and he loved me. There was a special bond between us that only the two of us understood. He managed to imprint a piece of himself into my child‘s soul. It is said that a strong trauma can impact a person‘s health.

© Petra Vlčková - My illness makes my body fragile and unstable.
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My illness makes my body fragile and unstable.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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A key feature of the relapsing-remitting form of multiple sclerosis are so-called attacks, during which the patient‘s condition worsens. The deterioration is manifested through neurological symptoms. During one of the first attacks, I experienced visions that my body was turning into porridge. The surrounding environment also turned into a porridge substance in which I was drowning.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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I created a model of a neuron. I decided to disrupt the object by destroying the myelin sheath in the way it occurs in multiple sclerosis. Just as the body of a person with the disease attacks its own tissues and self-damage occurs, an attack against its own immune system, I too attack my manually created object to demonstrate the basic principle of the process of my disease, multiple sclerosis.

© Petra Vlčková - I use gold color to symbolize multiple sclerosis.
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I use gold color to symbolize multiple sclerosis.

© Petra Vlčková - Medication tunes me. It strives for unity and balance in my body.
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Medication tunes me. It strives for unity and balance in my body.

© Petra Vlčková - The disease often manifests subtly, as if it were hiding and blending into my body. I capture its mimetic character.
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The disease often manifests subtly, as if it were hiding and blending into my body. I capture its mimetic character.

© Petra Vlčková - There are non-functional parts in side of my body, caused by multiple sclerosis.
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There are non-functional parts in side of my body, caused by multiple sclerosis.

© Petra Vlčková - A predator parasitizes my body, which is the disease MS (multiple sclerosis). It attacks my nervous system and paralyzes me.
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A predator parasitizes my body, which is the disease MS (multiple sclerosis). It attacks my nervous system and paralyzes me.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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The photograph was created as a form of autotherapy for accepting my own stigmatization. I expressed feelings associated with the attention to my limping caused by an impairment in my right leg. I created stockings with eyes that represent the surrounding views on my movement.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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The sculpture I discovered at the spa where I was being treated evokes the disease within my own body through its appearance.

© Petra Vlčková - My interpretation of MRI scan.
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My interpretation of MRI scan.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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I regularly undergo MRI scans. When I‘m inside the tunnel, a tapping sound echoes during the examination, gradually changing rhythm. I imagine that I am dancing.During one of my visits for an MRI, I recorded the sound of the machine during my examination. Later, I played this recording while dancing, creating a video. From this video, I made screenshots.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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Due to multiple sclerosis, I have difficulty walking and often fall. I photographed myself in the positions in which I stayed lying on the ground after fall down and then created a pile of bodies from these images.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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The robotic device Lokomat provides assisted movement during rehabilitation for patients with lower limb disorders. When connected to the robot, I feel as if I have a healthy body and all bad movement habits disappear. For the moment, my body feels corrected and I enjoy every step of my walk. It feels like I am putting my disease aside, and once the rehabilitation ends, I take it back on again.

© Petra Vlčková - Image from the Sphere Dance photography project
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Multiple sclerosis is a degenerative disease in which time plays a crucial role. I have created an infinity through which I walk across my own body.

© Petra Vlčková - At the core of being, I remain alone with my illness. It‘s just me and my disease.
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At the core of being, I remain alone with my illness. It‘s just me and my disease.

Sphere Dance by Petra Vlčková

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