MUSEUM WILL OPEN NEW EXHIBIT “BODY IMAGE/BODY ESSENCE: VIEWING OVARIAN CANCER THROUGH THE ART OF SCULPTURE”
  

The artist, John Magnan, with his wife, Mary.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine is celebrating the opening of its new exhibit, body image | body essence, which explores and highlights the process of overcoming ovarian cancer. The exhibit, which includes 15 sculptures by Massachusetts artist John Magnan, opens Sept. 22 and will run through March 31, 2006. Sponsors of the exhibit include Washington Woman Magazine, the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition and the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center.

Wig- life size, walnut.

The collection of sculpture represents the challenges women and their families face when diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The exhibit addresses issues such as self-image, hair loss, chemotherapy, and recovery and explores the conflict between “who I am” and “what I look like,” as described by the artist. “…Hair loss, the well-known chemotherapeutic side-effect, is the primary visual imagery in nearly every sculpture. Hair loss most visibly changes persona and carries the most social implications.”

The exhibit tells a very personal story in a very public way. Magnan began creating the sculpture as a reaction to the May 1999 diagnosis of his wife, Mary, with Stage III ovarian cancer. The pieces were his way of expressing what he and his wife, along with many other women, were experiencing.

The initial collection grew after Magnan gained the support of the MGH Cancer Center, becoming “a visual vocabulary for ovarian cancer awareness and a narration of a survivor’s transition from what came before ovarian cancer to a new life journey,” Magnan said.

Sharps- 8” wood egg, covered with 47,000 straight pins.

The exhibit features 15 sculptures using different mediums to convey feelings, emotions and experiences the couple faced. “Sharps!” is a wooden egg that is covered with 46,000 straight pins. Inserting the pins was a task that spanned 7 months and “became both a calming mantra and a symbol of [his] wife’s convalescence,” according to Magnan.

The Nest- copper, hair and holly; represents loss of ability to have children.

Dear Diary- wood egg, covered with prescription receipts, clinical trials, insurance forms and hospital bills

Other sculptures also use an egg to symbolize ovarian cancer, such as “Nest,” which depicts the unsettling realization that many women have that they will not be able to have children, and “Dear Diary,” which features an egg that is covered in excerpts from prescription receipts, hospital bills, and insurance forms. Mary Magnan likes to remember that "even though this exhibit is based on my own personal experience with ovarian cancer, it speaks to the more universal themes of hope, courage and love."

The collection began affecting people long before its national debut in November 2004 and in seeing its effectiveness, the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC) signed on to use it to spread awareness and information about the disease.
 

It is important to educate people on preventing the disease and early discovery because, “if caught in Stage I, the five-year survival rate is 90 percent, but if caught in Stage III or IV, it drops to 15-20 percent,” according to the NOCC. The exhibit is now a major part of the NOCC campaign that is traveling around the United States. The exhibit comes to the museum from locations in Georgia and Alabama, and prior to those; the exhibit was hosted at the Las Olas Art Center in Boca Raton, Fla., and the Boston Museum of Science. After its stay in Washington, the exhibit will go to Spartanburg Museum of Fine Art, in Spartanburg, S.C. More information on the exhibit and its locations can be found at www.bodyimage-bodyessence.com.

“We are honored to host this exhibition at our museum and to use this opportunity to encourage awareness about a disease that affects many women and their families. Using unique museum resources, we will shed light on the emotional, physiological, and psychological affects that accompany ovarian cancer and broaden awareness of women’s health concerns on a national level. The museum will also host a series of public programs that relate to the exhibit’s theme during its visit,” said Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., the museum’s director.

The exhibit will be on display at the museum, which is open every day except Dec. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The museum is located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Ave. and Elder Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Docent-led tours are offered to walk-in visitors at 1 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of each month. More information can be found at www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum or by calling 202-782-2200. Admission and parking are free.