CONTEMPORARY ART AWARDS 

Bec Litvan's photographic exhibition highlights breast cancer and the aftermath of this disease. Her work celebrates survival, disability and feminity by adorning her sitter with wearable mastectomy bras. 

 

- Contemporary Art Awards

 

Fantastic breasts and where to find them (2019) continues my desire to centralise the disfigured / disabled body and extoll non-traditional forms of female beauty through art. This show represents the aesthetic tension between the beautiful and the grotesque while contesting society’s marginalisation of disability and illness, and in particular breast cancer. 

 

The selection of works depicts graphically visualised cancer cells within a flamboyantly vivid colour palette presented as wearable mastectomy bras. Creating works that are grounded in cancer, yet presenting it in a visually compelling and inviting way speaks to the paradox of attempting to transform something that is mired in negative connotations into an image that is tinged with beauty. By depicting subjects like cancer and disability—which still carry a strong stigma within society—with an inviting colour palette opens the dialogue of these "taboo" topics. This photographic series celebrate survival, disability, and femininity which is often lost due to the gruelling and dehumanising process of breast cancer. My work aims to transform and engage with female body image in relation to a process which amputates femininity and restores it through empowerment. 

 

- Bec Litvan

To Have and to Hold, In Sickness and in Health

Photograph on foam mount
118.9 x 84.1cm

2018

2009

Photograph on foam mount

76 x 76cm

2018