Sara J. Winston
Our body is a clock
May 1 - 31 , 2025
Chronic illness is often perceived as a personal misfortune and private matter, making it a taboo to speak publicly about medical diagnoses, symptoms, treatments, and the financial burden of ongoing care. My art practice debunks this notion, transforming the conventional lived experience of illness into a space for creativity, dialogue, and connection. As an artist and patient knowingly living with Multiple Sclerosis since 2014, I navigate the blurry, layered boundaries, between care and dependency, amidst vulnerability and agency.
The exhibition Our body is a clock is rooted in the rhythm of my monthly intravenous immunosuppressive treatments in the Infusion Center. The series transforms moments into meditations on time, care, and survival. The changes to my likeness throughout the series form a "clockwork" narrative where my body becomes both subject and marker of time’s passage.
The Infusion Center, where my photographs are situated, is a space of profound contradiction — dominated by medical authority and systemic routines, yet deeply personal and emotionally charged. Reflecting larger societal dynamics of visibility and invisibility, non-normative bodies are often erased or reduced to passive objects of care. Through my images I claim these spaces, asserting agency, creativity, and humanity.
The Infusion Center’s cyclical rhythms — measured in drips, waiting, and the beeps of machines — disrupt conventional notions of time and productivity. This alternative timeline mirrors the concept where life unfolds in flexible, non-linear rhythms shaped by illness. By capturing these moments, I therefore challenge societal ideals of constant productivity and independence, presenting survival as an ongoing, lived experience rather than a triumph over illness.
Caregiving, particularly as a mother and patient, is central to my work. My images critique cultural expectations around dependency and emotional labor, especially as they relate to women. I explore the power dynamics of medical spaces, where authority often reinforces patient vulnerability. Yet, my photographs also reveal moments of solidarity — quiet glances, shared gestures — that create unspoken networks of empathy and support. And so, I transform infusions themselves into fueling resistance and resilience. My work disrupts cultural taboos around illness, celebrating non-normative bodies and fostering new dialogues about the complexities of care, survival, and identity.
In-Person Artist Talk with Sara J. Winston
Sat, May 3, 3:30 PM
Sara J. Winston (American, b. 1989, she/her) is an artist and writer based in New York, USA. She works with photographs, text, and the book form to describe and respond to chronic illness and its ongoing impact on her body, mind, family, and memory. Sara is the author of several photobooks, among them Foibles & Avoidance (National Monument Press, 2024), Shades (Push Pull Editions, 2023), A Lick and a Promise (Candor Arts, 2017) and Homesick (Zatara Press, 2015). In June of 2025 she will publish Sugar Honey Iced Tea with Los Angeles-based publisher For the Birds Trapped in Airports.
Sara is Associate Director of the Photography Program at Bard College; 2025 Acting Chair of the Penumbra Foundation/Image Threads Long Term Photobook Program; and a member of Storm King Art Center‘s Accessibility Advisory Group.