Hysteria is an installation designed in conversation with the collections and exhibitions at the International Museum of Surgical Science. With a focus on the fragility of life and the implications of gender, race, and power dynamics in medicine, Aparicio draws on her own experiences to explore the innate power of liminal objects like the gynecological exam table and an assortment of forceps and specula at the heart of her exhibition. Hysteria centers both the memories imbued within and the imprints of past patients upon these enduring pieces to explore the nature of womanhood as a condition defined by conflict, pain, and transition, constantly positioned at the very precipice of life and death.

Hysteria invites viewers to consider the effects of the institutionalization of medicine and subsequent imposition of strict boundaries in relation to gender, race, and authority in its most basic practice. The professionalization of gynecology in particular is a central theme in Aparicio’s work as it saw women removed from centuries-old positions of authority in favor of their textbook-educated male counterparts and the exploitation of marginalized women in the name of advancement and innovation. Like curtains in an examination room, Aparicio juxtaposes historical artifacts and natural materials to manifest these boundaries in the reflective process and represent the limitations of medical practice and long-standing social conventions. Utilizing thorn stems and ligature, the ephemerality of nature is contrasted with the rigidity of western medical practice and the unyielding conventions that inform consent, agency, and bodily autonomy. 

Image credit: Robert Chase Heishman.