BRINGING BREAST CANCER
INTO THE SPOTLIGHT
Talking about breast cancer can be awkward, but one artist is using her experience to start a conversation in her latest exhibition.
By Z’en Peck
‘Fugue’, an art piece made from cotton embroidery thread and suture thread on raw silk fabric.
Credit: Sunaina Bhalla
Mammograms are simply black and white x-ray pictures of the breast, used to detect early signs of breast cancer. Most women pay no heed to them when the checkup results come back negative. But for artist Sunaina Bhalla, things changed when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 during a routine checkup.
With no symptoms and no family history, the diagnosis came as a surprise.
Her husband, Mr Abhijeet Bhalla, mentioned that the diagnosis was “earth shattering”. “We didn’t want to accept it,” he added. The next feeling was fear. All the ‘What If?’ questions arose.
But in the initial diagnosis, one thing Mr Bhalla highlighted was the fact things went by so quickly, and that Sunaina had gone through it “almost on autopilot”.
Within a week of the diagnosis, she did a lumpectomy to remove the tumor in her left breast, which was followed by 19 cycles of radiation treatment over three weeks. Roughly three months later, she also made the difficult choice to do a hysterectomy, the removal of the uterus and ovaries to prevent cancer from occurring in them.
And now, after the long and arduous process of fighting and recovering from breast cancer, this is one chapter that Sunaina has come to revisit in her latest exhibition, Sharps and Such, which was held from 31 October 2020 to 9 November 2020, at Gillman Barracks.
Sunaina working on an art piece.
Credit: Sunaina Bhalla
Sunaina Bhalla is an artist from India, who has been residing in Singapore for nearly two decades. A textile designer by education, she uses materials like fabrics along with methods such as embroidery to make her art. But some of the newfound tools in her arsenal are things one would normally find in a medical kit.
One example is suture thread, normally for closing wounds, which she used to embroider onto printouts of her mammograms, to symbolise how her skin was pierced during surgical procedures.
Two artworks where thread is embroidered onto printouts of Sunaina’s mammograms.
Left: ‘Incursions, Incisions and Transgressions #Rvii’
Right: ‘Incursions, Incisions and Transgressions #Lviii
Credit: Sunaina Bhalla
Using the printouts was a key factor in grounding the art and reminding the audience that the experience was real. “A woman who’s had a mammogram would instantly be able to identify with it”, Sunaina said. “It brings about a certain closeness that I feel has been very beneficial for what I’m trying to depict.”
The exhibition is about the coexistence of pain and healing, exploring the pain one goes through when undergoing treatment to cure disease. The title comes from the medical term “sharps”, which used to describe objects that can cut or penetrate the skin.
“I wanted to use art to kind of soften the gravity of what it is, while at the same time talking about a subject that is so serious”, she said. “To open a dialogue with other women and other people, so that it can start a conversation where people are not uncomfortable talking about it.”
This feeling was echoed by one attendee of the exhibition, Ms Joemain Ng. “You can literally feel the agony she has to go through.”
“It was cathartic. And I think I got it out of my system,” Sunaina said about the process of preparing for the exhibition. “But in the end, that became a relief of sort that I had looked at it. And I'm grateful that I have come to the other side.”
In the process of creating her art, she had to look at her mammograms again, and realised “how bad it was”, she noted.
Previously, during her doctor’s visits, she would simply take a quick look at the reports, and only hear what the doctor would have to say.
“I can be a little more objective about it and look at it from a distance to see how far I've come.”
The past year when the pandemic hit provided Sunaina with the time and space to come full circle with her brush with breast cancer and turn that experience into art.
Looking to the future, Sunaina is positive. “Just chugging along”, she said. “Honestly, right now is a good place. The year has been hard, but it’s been positive for my work.”
A timeline of Sunaina’s journey with cancer.