Charlotte Poulsom

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Having lived with Type 1 Diabetes since age 9, my practice surrounds the juxtaposing, life-sustaining and damaging qualities of the condition and treatments involved in managing it.

In my current work focused on these themes, I am experimenting with surface manipulation, colour combinations and creating bodily forms using glass. In considering both the inner and outer spaces of the material, I can investigate these issues through the repeated mark-making on the surface, the use of colour to evoke a sense of the body and of blood, and the piercing and distorting of the surface through to the inside of the glass, transgressing the boundaries between “skin” and “body.”

My work does not aim to dramatize or victimize life with chronic illness, rather I hope to call attention to how it has shaped my experience with my body, presently unto the future.