Harriet Welch

‘Beyond Sickness’ forms the introduction to ‘Chronic: on textures, illness and the endless scroll’. The text asks what is beyond sickness and what is beyond the binaries of wellness and illness that we so often subscribe to in allopathic dominated medicine? It examines apathetic assumptions of what ‘healthy’ looks like — themselves steeped in many prejudices and how we may aim to erase these understandings of the body.

‘Chronic in the age of the instant: on not knowing’ explores the idea of how digital spaces and post-truth media are now interwoven with the experience of living with chronic illness in our current age. Drawing on ideas of fragility and inferiority the chapter documents the ‘unknown’ element of living with chronic illness and forms the first chapter of ‘Chronic : on textures, illness, and the endless scroll’.

Fabric as skin, and skin as fabric, the protection of the body or the futile nature of the idea of protection form the basis of the ideas in this essay. As part of ‘Chronic: on textures, illness, and the endless scroll’ this essay explores the idea of fabric as a consolation and fabric as confrontation. Clothing can represent so much or so little when it comes to the 'wellness' of the body that it dresses. ‘Dressing the body in sickness: skin does not protect from the inside out’ chronicles cloth as comfort to our bodies.

‘The aestheticization of wellness: the endless scroll’ is a fragmented text that explores the idea of wellness being an aspirational ‘look’. Pulling on the idea of ‘wellness’ under late capitalism and the pressure on the chronically ill to ‘work’ on their health, this chapter of ‘Chronic: on textures, illness, and the endless scroll’ documents how a slimming down of state institutions puts healthcare into our own hands.

This section of ‘Chronic: on textures, illness, and the endless scroll’ is titled ‘A reflection on immunity: destruction’. This chapter explores how immunity is often something that Western cultures take for granted, an assumption pulled into question by the current COVID19 pandemic. Documenting how the narratives of immunity are often formed around ‘war’, which has been further developed in relation to COVID19, this reflection offers a meditation on the idea of what it means to be immune and in an eternal ‘fight’ against an ‘enemy’ illness.

As part of my text ‘Chronic: on textures, illness, and the endless scroll’ I interviewed the artist Ane Graff. Ane's work was presented at the 2019 Venice Biennale and was titled ‘States of Inflammation’—the sculptures and installations explored eco-feminism, bodies, chronic illness, and entanglement. I spoke to Ane in late February 2020 about her practice and how making work about the body is inherently politicised.

N.B there is no audio for this section of 'Chronic' due to the interview being conducted via phone and therefore the text is a selected excerpt.

The final section of ‘Chronic: on textures, illness, and the endless scroll’ is titled ‘Afterword: on illness, advocacy, and the environment’. Exploring chronic illnesses that have 'grown up with the internet' this final chapter acknowledges the non-linear progression of ‘healing’, ‘wellness’ and how advocacy is central to the experience of living with chronic illness.

This text was written for NOIT—5: bodies as in buildings, with the starting point as the John Latham’s artist house-as-body. I wrote about bodies, “New Labour” optimism in the late 1990s and the Millenium, the corporatisation of public space, the Millennium Dome, and real bodies living under late-capitalism. This text is accompanied by illustrations by Maia Magoga Aranovich who is a graduating Visual Communication student at the RCA.

NOIT—5: bodies as in buildings was edited by Yin Ying Kong and George Lynch. The project was overseen by RCA Writing tutor Emily LaBarge and project managed by Harriet Welch. NOIT—5: bodies as in buildings was designed by graduating Visual Communication student Emily Schofield and the photographs of the publication are by MA Photography student Hannah Archambault.

Purple Prose was established by the elusive Elein Fleiss and the, now celebrity editor, Olivier Zahm in 1992. Purple Prose ran for just thirteen issues before expanding into multiple strands associated with the now fashion based tome that is Purple Magazine.

I have explored the spirit of Purple Prose and the transitional moment when Purple Prose become others — Purple, Purple Fashion, Purple Sexe, and more. This non-linear publishing format allowed Purple to experiment in ways which have informed many magazines over the decades since.

I have documented my digital search for Elein Fleiss and captured the fact that as Purple Prose was created in the early 1990s: it left no trace. Researching Purple Prose prompted my consideration of what a magazine leaves behind today, Purple Prose leaves a huge legacy but almost no digital documentation. The thirteen issues of Purple Prose occupied a unique space in the 1990s publishing scene with an impressive list of contributors such as Jop Van Bennekom, Mark Borthwick, Wolfgang Tillmans, and many more.

Scans of Purple Prose are from the V&A National Art Library archive / Beaux-Arts de Paris Library and are used for research purposes only.

N1C was deemed a new postcode to ‘re-brand’ the area surrounding Kings Cross & St. Pancras in 'North Central London'. Taking what developers referred an ‘industrial wasteland’ (which in fact housed a community) and re-developing it to create a problematically privatised public area. A plethora of aspirational branding re-positioned N1C as a 'new' part of central London. This essay explores the history of the area and appropriates the luxury and ‘aspirational’ quality of promotion—aiming to highlight the hypocrisy of the development and the erasure of the community, and history of N1C.

Research images were sourced from the Camden Archives Centre archives on the redevelopment of Kings Cross & St. Pancras and are used for research purposes only.

An interview with the cultural critic, writer, and lecturer Ken Hollings. The conversation is presented as ten sections as a homage to the aphorism-like nature of Hollings’ work—which in this context uses the format to experiment with presenting the multiple facets of the interviewee.

I interviewed Ken Hollings in February 2019 prior to the publication of his latest book "Inferno - The Trash Project".