Patency 2 is a wall-mounted ceramic sculpture of an intravenous bag decorated with patterns reminiscent of designs found on domestic textiles and pottery. The work was created during a month-long residency at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark, in 2025, and explores the artist’s experience with open heart surgery.
The IV bag is an device that helps sustain life and, in that sense, serves as a poignant symbol of life support. The decorative patterning speaks to the domestic sphere as well as ideas of comfort, care, and community. Upon close inspection, sections of the pattern appear to dissolve and fragment, highlighting the tenuous state of life and death, the limits of our health care system, and our ability heal and protect each other.
The work’s title offers a dual meaning, referencing its use in health care settings as the ‘state of being open and unobstructed’, a desirable condition in a medical context, as well as its general meaning as the state of ‘being easy to see and understand’, a reference to both the vulnerability of being a patient, as well as the challenges related to understanding other’s lived experiences.