CONVERSATIONS ABOUT CARE
Series of community events, various locations, 2022 - ongoing
NEXT EVENT:
Come as you are for a community chat/tea time and share what CARE means to you, what forms of care you see happening in your community and how to extend these practices to our society. The liberating, empowering words of queer, BIPOC disability activists, chronically ill artists and revolutionary healthcare practitioners, will be our conversation starters to discuss intersectionality, forms of resistance to capitalism and ableism and radical interdependence.
No pre-reading is expected to attend this event, just an interest in sharing and listening.
This project is funded through a 2023 - 2024 MRAC Arts Impact for Individual Grant, supported by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Image description: on a pale green background are 5 images in rounded frames with fuzzy borders. The images are photographs from previous conversations: a shelf with books, a table with snacks, participants sitting and reading, quotes from attendees printed on cyanotype saying "care is in the details". Below the images, in the center, written in a font resembling stitching thread, text recites: "Conversation About Care. September 25, 4 PM - 6 PM. Mill City Museum, 704 S 2nd St, Minneapolis. Info and registration here: https://forms.gle/ft2kKS8pieaf18XR8
A group of people sitting in a circle on chairs, armchairs and couches read books.
Snacks, tea, and lights on a green tablecloth
On a white background is written in orange and grey metro regional arts council
LESS IS ENOUGH
Solo exhibition, Second Shift Studio, St Paul, 2023
Less is Enough is a solo exhibition of new artworks created by Zoe Cinel during the year-long residency at Second Shift Studio Space of Saint Paul. Through a multidisciplinary approach to art making, Cinel explores chronic illness, care, and softness both from an individual and communal point of view.
Foto by Emily Dzieweczynski
Foto by Emily Dzieweczynski
Foto by Emily Dzieweczynski
Foto by Emily Dzieweczynski
Foto by Emily Dzieweczynski
TOO HOT TO HANDLE
Solo exhibition, RCTC Gallery, Rochester, MN, 2021
This exhibition features new installations about a very personal experience I have been going through since 2020, when I was diagnosed at 28 years old with RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis)*, an autoimmune inflammatory disease I inherited from my maternal grandmother. In the last year I experienced the fatality of negotiating life with chronic pain, meds and a defeating health care system in a foreign country and during a pandemic. This show is a self portrait and it’s process: it’s raw, clinical yet intimate. A celebration of the many times I was made way too aware of the existence and the clash of my own cells.
Press:Article on Post Bulletin, feature on R-Town (Episode 1909)
Video documentation by Chris Rackley, pictures by Rik Sferra
Ode to My Medical Bills
Multimedia installation, MDW Fair, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, 2022
More info at: www.mdwfair.com
Gradual Ascent
Photo project for group exhibition at Augsburg College Gallery, 2021-2022
Gradual Ascent is a year-long project that invited twelve photographers to reflect on obstacles, changes, and joys throughout one particular month. The month-long format provided an opportunity to share the ebb and flow of how individuals processed and found their way during the second year of the pandemic. Their perspectives are an acknowledgment of our varied and ever-changing situations, offering moments of connection and meaning as we slowly emerged from a time of great uncertainty.
"Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease leading the immune system to attack healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation (painful swelling) in the affected parts of the body. RA mainly attacks the joints, usually many joints at once.
In summer 2020, at age 28, I was diagnosed with RA. This is a portrait of myself through the lens of pain and a retrospective of the chronic disease.
In summer 2020, at age 28, I was diagnosed with RA. This is a portrait of myself through the lens of pain and a retrospective of the chronic disease.
Photography has helped me document moments in which my body looked swollen, red and hurt. These images are a reminder of how far I have come in the journey with pain.”
More info at: www.designandagency.com/gradual-ascent
Natura morta with Adalimumab
Inkjet print, 24"x43", 2022 - ongoing)
Learning to live with a chronic condition (RA) is a long, complex journey that involves physical, emotional and lifestyle adjustments. This work is an attempt to reconcile with my medications, which are life-saving for me but also threatening and burdening in many ways. They are prohibitively expensive, they have innumerable side effects and they are laborious to transport (they need to be refrigerated) in my periodical trip to Italy, my home country.
Biologics are medications made from living cells. Adalimumab belongs to a class of medications known as tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers. The medication is made by joining together DNA molecules. Typically, patients must have an inadequate response to conventional medications to be considered for biologics. These medications work by suppressing the immune system. While these drugs may be effective in treating symptoms of various inflammatory diseases, they also put users at greater risk of serious and even deadly infections and cancers.
