Esses were minimal; for instance, the range of images for the collages specified by the researchers was large enough to not hamper creative inclinations. All but one of the workshop participants met the expressive art activities with immediate enthusiasm. In her post-workshop interview, one expressed reservations about her `artistic’ abilities. She reported that during the workshop she had felt her abilities were not as well honed as those of the other women. At the same time, she found the experience of producing her collage and installation to be `very powerful’ (A#4). Others noted the general level of eagerness and energetic participation among the group members: `there was nobody that didn’t want to come to my display, did you see anybody that held back? No, it was “here I go, zoom!”‘ (A#3). Apart from the one woman who initially hesitated, the group SB 202190MedChemExpress SB 202190 seized upon the activities, accepting the premise of the popular art forms: the only required expertise was their lived experience, not the technical aspects of the artistic creation. In the post-workshop interviews, the women reflected on the communicative power of the art forms used in the workshops. `When we did the collages and you got together and it amazed me how people had put such thought and pulled symbols that hit you immediately. … how people chose to express themselves … they told stories … it hit you with all your senses because it was visual, there was audio, you could feel it’. (A#3). The images of the collages and installations made it possible for the women to express the unsayable. The images `spoke’ for themselves, some quite loudly. Some images were quite literal, which strengthened their representational power. When assembling her installation at home (TAPI-2 cost Figure 1), one participant recalled asking herself, `How do I see my life now?’ She turned to compression sleeves, which she thought `are so icky, so maybe I should put a couple of my new sleeves on there. But then I thought, “No, this is what it’s like. They get this way’. Therefore, the installation is `like hanging up my dirty laundry. My life every day. It’s thinking about my boob, what I’m going to wear today, how I can make it comfortable … every day I’m reminded of cancer … . The installation is what life is, represented by the icky sleeves, and what it would have been but can’t be anymore, represented by the new sleeves’. A woman’s arm took prominence in one collage (Figure 2) by its placement in the centre, its three-dimensionality and disproportionately large size relative to300 ?2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1477-8211 Social Theory Health Vol. 12, 3, 291?Aesthetic rationality of the popular expressive artsFigure 1: Sleeve installation.Figure 2: Protruding arm collage.its associated body. The `large’ arm was cut out from one picture and glued onto a different body to protrude outwards from the collage. The open-endedness of the images’ interpretability provided safety for the women to discuss subjects that might otherwise be difficult. Several commented on feelings of safety in the discussions focused on the creations: `they bring out some very private thoughts that you probably wouldn’t share otherwise … and?2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1477-8211 Social Theory Health Vol. 12, 3, 291?12Quinlan et alwe have the right to express it or not express it or take it out if we choose, if it doesn’t fit we can take it out so, you know there’s some safety’ (V#4). The collages and installations provok.Esses were minimal; for instance, the range of images for the collages specified by the researchers was large enough to not hamper creative inclinations. All but one of the workshop participants met the expressive art activities with immediate enthusiasm. In her post-workshop interview, one expressed reservations about her `artistic’ abilities. She reported that during the workshop she had felt her abilities were not as well honed as those of the other women. At the same time, she found the experience of producing her collage and installation to be `very powerful’ (A#4). Others noted the general level of eagerness and energetic participation among the group members: `there was nobody that didn’t want to come to my display, did you see anybody that held back? No, it was “here I go, zoom!”‘ (A#3). Apart from the one woman who initially hesitated, the group seized upon the activities, accepting the premise of the popular art forms: the only required expertise was their lived experience, not the technical aspects of the artistic creation. In the post-workshop interviews, the women reflected on the communicative power of the art forms used in the workshops. `When we did the collages and you got together and it amazed me how people had put such thought and pulled symbols that hit you immediately. … how people chose to express themselves … they told stories … it hit you with all your senses because it was visual, there was audio, you could feel it’. (A#3). The images of the collages and installations made it possible for the women to express the unsayable. The images `spoke’ for themselves, some quite loudly. Some images were quite literal, which strengthened their representational power. When assembling her installation at home (Figure 1), one participant recalled asking herself, `How do I see my life now?’ She turned to compression sleeves, which she thought `are so icky, so maybe I should put a couple of my new sleeves on there. But then I thought, “No, this is what it’s like. They get this way’. Therefore, the installation is `like hanging up my dirty laundry. My life every day. It’s thinking about my boob, what I’m going to wear today, how I can make it comfortable … every day I’m reminded of cancer … . The installation is what life is, represented by the icky sleeves, and what it would have been but can’t be anymore, represented by the new sleeves’. A woman’s arm took prominence in one collage (Figure 2) by its placement in the centre, its three-dimensionality and disproportionately large size relative to300 ?2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1477-8211 Social Theory Health Vol. 12, 3, 291?Aesthetic rationality of the popular expressive artsFigure 1: Sleeve installation.Figure 2: Protruding arm collage.its associated body. The `large’ arm was cut out from one picture and glued onto a different body to protrude outwards from the collage. The open-endedness of the images’ interpretability provided safety for the women to discuss subjects that might otherwise be difficult. Several commented on feelings of safety in the discussions focused on the creations: `they bring out some very private thoughts that you probably wouldn’t share otherwise … and?2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1477-8211 Social Theory Health Vol. 12, 3, 291?12Quinlan et alwe have the right to express it or not express it or take it out if we choose, if it doesn’t fit we can take it out so, you know there’s some safety’ (V#4). The collages and installations provok.
