You Don't Look Sick

From a deeply personal perspective, Vermeeren sheds light on living with an invisible disability. Through photography, video, and sculptural work, she reflects on her chronic pain and societal assumptions surrounding health and identity.

"You don't look sick' is a phrase artist Jasmijn Vermeeren hears frequently. In conversations about diversity and inclusion within society, the position of people with hidden mental and/or physical disabilities often remains underexposed.

What impact does it have on you when your own perception of the world differs so significantly from what others can see or perceive from the outside? In You Don’t Look Sick, Vermeeren explores this question and sheds light on living with an invisible disability. Through photography, video and sculptural work, she reflects on how she sees herself and how the outside world - which allows little room for deviation and vulnerability - sees her.

The self-portrait collages allude to a shifting, sometimes even fragmented, self-image that distorts and changes, shaped by her relationship to the outside world. The video work serves as a tool to reflect on the phrases that recur when her chronic pain comes up in conversation. The sculpture is a self-portrait constructed from layers of photographic paper like a second skin, with which Vermeeren plays on the assumption that everyone without a visible disability is able-bodied.

The work invites the viewer to adopt an open, sensitive attitude, with compassion as the driving force for understanding an invisible reality. In this way, You Don't Look Sick demonstrates how the normative perspective influences the self-image of people with disabilities - and the urgency of rethinking that perspective.

Link to video work: https://youtu.be/AlGLvv85ORw