This Pleasant Lady is an immersive installation, that transforms my 61 year old body into a living archive. Invited to lie inside a reimagined MRI scanner, audiences go on an immersive journey through my body, through six decades of accidents, illnesses, loves, motherhood and near-death experiences.

The title comes from a phrase repeated in my medical records: “this pleasant lady.” At first it sounds flattering. Pleasant means polite, accommodating, the kind of woman who won’t make a fuss. This Pleasant Lady asks what that politeness can cost. It explores the ways women’s bodies are monitored, doubted, reassured, ignored or dismissed within healthcare systems, and how clinical language can ignore the person behind the diagnosis.

This Pleasant Lady is a 3D portrait of my body seen through the machinery that saved my life. It’s a darkly funny and life-affirming meditation on survival, mortality and how to live fully in the time we have left.

Currently in Development.