Relax

Digital output print on Moab photo rag paper
11" x 22"
5th in an edition of 6. 
2006
 
This piece is one in a series of nine text-based art pieces I made in the format of a Snellen eye chart. Each mini-narrative reflects an aspect of my experience as a patient recovering from 3 surgeries to repair a retinal detachment, which occurred when I was two weeks into my final semester at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I nearly lost my right eye, and had to go to the doctor every 2-3 days for months.
 
Each visit to the retinal pathologist they had to check the pressure inside of my eyes. They put numbing drops on your eyes, but you still have to stare directly ahead as they touch the instrument to your eye. If you tense up or hold your breath, it causes artificially high readings. Hence, the text of this piece says, "RELAX WHILE I POKE YOU IN THE EYE." The request is simultaneously logical, reasonable, and absolutely absurd.
 
Another piece from this series was selected for a group show at The Smithsonian's S. Dillon Ripley Center in 2007. You can read the press coverage from The Chicago Tribune's Weekend Magazine here.