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Misbehaving Bodies: Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery

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Photograph of the Misbehaving Bodies exhibition at Wellcome Collection, showing a wide view of the space. in the foreground a young man and woman discuss a video piece projected onto a large screen. In the background an other young man and woman look at the artworks that are displayed on the wall.
Misbehaving Bodies exhibition, Thomas SG Farnetti. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

An invigorating – if ultimately heartbreaking – experience.

The Guardian

Our free exhibition brings together two artists who explore the representation of chronic illness and reclaim the idea of ‘misbehaving bodies’.

Influential photographer Jo Spence’s (1934–92) work documents her diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent healthcare regime throughout the 1980s. Her raw and confrontational photography is shown alongside Oreet Ashery’s (b. 1966) award-winning miniseries ‘Revisiting Genesis’, 2016. Ashery’s politically engaged work explores loss and the lived experience of chronic illness in the digital era. In October 2019, a new commission by Ashery, exploring the recent death of her father, will be added. 

Follow your own path through this exhibition, challenge your understanding of ‘misbehaving’ or ‘untypical’ bodies, and reflect on how illness shapes identity. 

Exhibition highlights

Photograph of a gallery wall showing several laminated sheets of collaged text and photographs. Behind the gallery wall is a draped fabric. to the right is a television screen showing a still from a film.
Beyond the Family Album. 1978-1979 by Jo Spence. © Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image centre courtesy MACBA Collection.
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This excerpt from ‘Beyond the Family Album’ is the oldest piece in the show, from 1978, and it represents things that aren’t typically seen in a family album, like divorce, illness or trauma. Jo Spence’s larger-than-life self-portrait is the first time that she turned the camera on herself and started using her own image in a political way.

Photograph of a wall in a gallery showing a framed black and white photograph of a woman, naked from the waist up. On her left breast is written the words, 'Property of Jo Spence?' To the left of the photograph is a text panel, attached to the wall.
A Picture of Health: Property of Jo Spence? 1982 by Jo Spence and Terry Dennett. © Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre.
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Jo Spence was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1982. ‘A Picture of Health: Property of Jo Spence?’ was taken by her collaborator Terry Dennett, and is about Jo reclaiming her body. She took a version of this into hospital with her for her lumpectomy to remind herself of her own agency.

Photograph of a section of a gallery wall, showing several laminated sheets of black paper, overlaid with collages of text and imagery.
Remodelling medical history, cancer shock victims? 1982-1984 by Jo Spence. © Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre courtesy Estate of Jo Spence, Richard Saltoun Gallery.
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‘Cancer Shock Photonovel’ documents Jo Spence’s immediate feelings after being diagnosed with cancer. This panel, for instance, explores her new health regime and interest in raw juice therapy and hydrotherapy.

Photograph of a section of a gallery wall, showing several laminated sheets of black paper, overlaid with collages of text and imagery exploring ideas around cancer treatment.
The Picture of Health by Jo Spence, Rosy Martin, Terry Dennett and Maggie Murray. © Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre courtesy MACBA Collection.
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‘The Picture of Health?’ is a huge work made over a period of four years with a network of collaborators. In the green panel here, Jo Spence challenges the way that we often talk about cancer in terms of bravery, asking if she is a “heroine or victim?”.

Photograph of a section of a gallery display case showing the open pages a scrapbook. The open page shows three photographs of a woman wearing a yellow pattered apron, with her hands outstretched. On the page is written the words, 'How do I give up responsibilities without being ill?'
Love me whatever I do by Jo Spence. © Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre courtesy Estate of Jo Spence, Richard Saltoun Gallery.
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Jo Spence kept diaries and scrapbooks throughout the last ten years of her life, and they were part of her therapy. In them, she works through issues such as her dependence on work, which ran through her whole life, not just the time when she had cancer.

Photograph of a section of a gallery exhibition, showing two large purple and pink tie-dyed 'tents'. Inside each tent is a video screen showing a film. Each tent contains a large purple and pink tie-dyed teddy bear with long arms surrounded by several seats.
Oreet Ashery's work, Revisiting Genesis, installed in 'hubs' designed by David Kohn Architects. © Oreet Ashery.
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‘Revisiting Genesis’ by Oreet Ashery is a 12-part mini-series that merges fact and fiction and brings together a range of characters. Ashery explores different ways people can be marginalised when seeking treatments, for instance if we are queer, or a migrant, or a person with a chronic illness.

Colour film still of part of a ceramic sharks head with its jaws open. Inside its mouth are a selection of biscuits. A human hand touching the sharks teeth. The general hues of the image are purple.
Episode 3: Cushions, Digital Will & Foot. 2016. © Oreet Ashery.
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The shark appears throughout ‘Revisiting Genesis’ in connection with the character Bambi (real-life artist Martin O’Brien). O’Brien uses the shark as a symbol of his cystic fibrosis because it’s something under the surface that can attack at any moment.

Colour film still of a woman from the waist up holding an illuminated sign with the words, 'Between Life and Death' written on it. The general hues of the image are purples and blues.
Episode 4: M&S Cake Factory, Swindon. 2016. © Oreet Ashery.
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‘Revisiting Genesis’ explores how new technologies affect our relationship to death. Ashery explores how we can be exploited even after we die, as companies try to sell things to us or our relatives, and make money from the data we leave behind.

Photograph of a grid of framed photographs. The images show a woman in various self portrait scenarios. The photographs are framed in mounts in the hues of yellows, oranges and browns.
Phototheraphy - Infantilization. 1984-1986 by Jo Spence and Rosy Martin. © Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre courtesy Estate of Jo Spence, Richard Saltoun Gallery.
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Jo Spence developed ‘Phototherapy’ with photographer Rosie Martin as a form of co-counselling where people take it in turns to counsel each other. The person in front of the camera is the one in control and the photographer becomes a ‘therapist’ who helps them to work through their feelings about the traumatic thing they’re re-enacting.

Photograph of two framed prints from a larger grid of images. The image on the left shows a photograph of a woman wearing a baby's bonnet and sucking a dummy, framed in a yellow mount. On the right is an image of a woman wearing a baby's bib, feeding herself with a spoon. Her face is covered in food. The image is framed in a yellow mount.
Phototheraphy - Infantilization. 1984-1986 by Jo Spence and Rosy Martin. © Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre courtesy Estate of Jo Spence, Richard Saltoun Gallery.
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Here we can see Jo Spence exploring the way she was made to feel infantilised by the medical establishment. She felt disempowered, like a misbehaving child, because she refused treatment and did not do what was expected of her.

Photograph of the Misbehaving Bodies exhibition at Wellcome Collection, showing a wide view of the space. In the foreground is a video piece by Oreet Ashrey titled 'Revisiting Genesis' which is projected onto a large screen.
Oreet Ashery's work, Revisiting Genesis. © Oreet Ashery.
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The final episode in ‘Revisiting Genesis’ presents a meditative view of death. A white-suited aerialist on a white background is a metaphorical display of the body dissolving away. The body depicted doesn’t have a clear gender or race, and could be anyone, because death is a universal experience.

Photograph of Jo Spence wearing a black one-piece swimming costume floating face up in blue rippled water
Jo Spence; The Final Project ['End Picture' Floating], 1991 – 1992. Collaboration with Terry Dennett. Wellcome Collection. © Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre.
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This image is from ‘The Final Project’ by Jo Spence. The double-exposure photograph that seems to show her body being returned to nature is one of the last works she made before her death. Beside the photograph is the poem that accompanies the aerialist in ‘Revisiting Genesis’. Ashery referred to the poem as a Kaddish about dying in the digital age, in which she says, “How we die is how we live, only more so.”

In this exhibition