Ivan Acebo-Choy
Mexico
https://hojadeacebo.net/
IG: @acebochi

Explanation of Pain
2024
Hand assembled accordion book – Twelve hand-embroidered panels on fabric
7 x 2 x 6

Artist Statement

If pain had a color, which would it be? What shape would it have? And how do we recognize pain in others when we know it is so intimate, only perceptible in our own (subjective) terms?

This collection of embroidered drawings consists of illustrations taken from a palliative care manual that teaches how to auscultate, palpate, feel and scrutinize the body of patients. As a counterpart, the book also contains a series of candid portraits of patients that point out, give color and shape to their own pain through a vocabulary that medical techniques resist. The pain we feel, whatever its nature, is only ours, and can only be described in our terms. Yet, medical techniques always find a way to standardize its experience, its location, its length, its demise.

It is also intriguing how the palliative illustrations gain new meanings when read outside of their original context. Is that a doctor listening for sounds in his lungs? Or is that a coy gesture of affection? In looking to identify the pain, who knows more about it? Which is the more accurate description? Who can grab it and throw it away?

Proposed as visual essays, the Explanation series is a collection of drawings that advance answers to an unsaid question. It is a sinuous journey, as a good essay would, and an invitation to construct meanings from what is written-drawn-embroidered.

All pieces in the Explanation series are hand-embroidered and hand-bound in accordion format.

My interest in embroidering books stems from the ability of embroidery to resemble ink drawings. Embroidery provides whole new dimensions, both conceptual and physical, to the act of conceiving, and interacting with, the finished book. My books aim to change our perception of the act of writing and drawing. They are labor-intensive, and they follow rigorous research on topics that are first translated into drawings on paper before they are transferred and hand-embroidered on to the cloth. As a result, they are mostly unique editions.