Threads of survival
Author: Megan Griffiths
Supervisors: Leoni Schmidt
28 February 2020
Griffiths, M. A. L. (2020). Threads of survival. (An abstract of an unpublished dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand).
Abstract
This dissertation comprises the written component of a research project undertaken by Megan Griffiths reflecting on chronic and unexpected health issues from her three-and-a-half-year struggle with pain associated with problems in her spine requiring decompression surgery.
The topics investigate historic and contemporary literature and art relating to the four chapters in this dissertation: pain, medication, addiction and withdrawal. The dissertation reveals a pharmacopeia investigating these four issues that Griffiths personally experienced as reflected in her textiles practice resulting in a public exhibition including four works directly related to the four written chapters: Six Days of Pain, Scripted, Fool’s Gold and Under my Skin.
Near the end of the project, Griffiths reflects – in a Coda – on the process of recovery and the therapeutic role played by making her experience public through the four artworks and the writing in this dissertation.
Keywords
pain, medication, addiction, withdrawal, Oxycodone
License
This abstract is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence CC BY-NC 4.0 International.
The thesis is not publicly available online. A bound hard copy is or will be available to borrow for research purposes from the Robertson Library, University of Otago.
