| Project Title: | SORE |
| Venue: | The Guildhall, Barnstaple, UK |
| Exhibition date: | 7th – 8th March 2025 -International Women’s Day |
If only I hadn’t cried. 2024. 25 x 25cm [watercolour on paper].
Artist Statement
I am a project-based, multimedia artist investigating the experience of living in a female body within contemporary culture. My work centres on the sources of shame women often carry – particularly around beauty, aging and illness. Through a process that is deeply personal and intentionally vulnerable, I use research, collage, and writing to explore and articulate my own lived experiences.
Collaboration is central to my practice: its unpredictability challenges my material processes and it is a way of learning from and with others, as well as creating space for shared empowerment. I view my art as a form of activism – by bringing the private and personal into public view, I aim to challenge inequalities, create open dialogue and advocate for change.
Contextual Statement
SORE is an arts-based research project exploring women’s experiences of gendered pain and medical gaslighting in the UK. It aims to challenge existing narratives around women’s pain and change the way women are treated when they seek medical help. The project brings together personal and societal contexts including my own struggle to get my chronic pain recognised and treated, the testimonies of twelve women from around the UK and key reports from health charities which show that the issue is widespread.
The socio-political context is critical: The re-election of President Trump poses global risks to women’s health and body autonomy and UK austerity measures and NHS funding cuts continue to undermine investment in women’s healthcare and have resulted in the scrapping of the proposed new hospital in my local area. It is more important than ever to press for improvements in women’s health.
The SORE exhibition
The exhibition took place on International Women’s Day 2025 as part of a wide range of events organised by Barnstaple Town Council. I recreated a medical setting inside the Guildhall, Barnstaple, with the purpose of bringing the private struggle of sick women out of the bedroom/ bathroom/ consulting room and into the public realm.
Visitors interacted with a film installation where they experienced medical misogyny first-hand. From there, they encountered a textile portrait of a woman suffering with gynaecological illness and long waiting times, an online application which demonstrated the shocking impact of women’s ill health on the economy, and drawings which depicted interactions between patients and doctors.
During the exhibition, the consulting room doubled up as a safe space for women to share their experiences of medical gaslighting and visitors were invited to join conversations about the issues raised. Finally, visitors completed their own response with a ‘prescription’ for women’s health in the UK. The project is ongoing: I have met with my local MP to identify three key areas of concern. We have prepared a letter which he is taking to the Minister of Health and the Women’s Health Commission in Parliament.
Project Documentation
Installation view of Inside the consulting room. 2025. Video installation. Watch the film below:
How do I stem the waiting? 2024. 250 x 73cm [thread, acrylic, watercolour, blood on cotton].
Installation view of At what cost? (£415 per second). 2025. Online application.
The total money lost to the UK economy due to gynaecological ill health was almost £9 million over the duration of the exhibition. You can see more in the film below:
Trudy’s pain. 2025. 86 x 70cm [pencil on paper].
Lesley’s pain (The doctor will look at you but he might not see you). 2024. 42 x 59cm diptych [pencil on paper].
Audience feedback in the form of ‘prescriptions’ for women’s health.
Thanks to all the women who generously shared their experiences.
You can follow the project on Instagram or my website (links below)
https://www.nickyruddick.co.uk: Nicky Ruddick