Dr Darian Goldin Stahl Publishes Article in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

Congratulations to Dr Darian Goldin Stahl for her forthcoming article (November 2024) in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.  This article entitled, “Donning the Imaging Gown: Enchanting the Ill and Pregnant Body in Art,” chronicles the metamorphosis of a standard hospital gown into a work of wearable art that showcases the glittering pregnant body.

Stay tuned for the release of this article!

Introduction:

Shrouded, vulnerable, and fearful for what the imaging will reveal, the hospital gown is a particularly charged article of clothing. For the chronically ill and disabled, the ritual of shedding the subjecthood that clothing provides to dawn the gown signals one’s change of identity from “person” to “patient” for anyone to see. Add to this the cycles of hopefulness and despair during years-long infertility treatments, and the dress might become an unbearable garment. If the gown is an unavoidable prerequisite to receiving medical care, how might we transform the dreadful dress into an iconic costume, symbolizing the resilient journey to motherhood while also chronically ill? And how can we encourage the medical community to see through the gown and recognize the personhood beneath?

This essay chronicles the metamorphosis of a standard hospital gown into a work of wearable art that showcases the glittering pregnant body. The artwork emerges from my decade-long collaborative practice with my sister, Devan Stahl, as her experiences living under the medical gaze were compounded in the pursuit of motherhood. Rather than thinly shrouding nakedness, this handcrafted gown exhibits the nude, gravid, and disabled figure as not only worthy of artistic concentration, but full of wonder and enchantment.