Replacement Parts: A Passport to Wellnness

Art in Odd Places 2019: INvisible

For Art in Odd Places (AIOP) I created an interactive book-making project titled “THE IN(VISIBLE)ITY PROJECT/Replacement Parts: A Passport to Wellness.” I set up a table and two chairs to encouraged and helped passersby make passport-like booklets titled Replacement Parts: A Passport to Healing. 

The idea was prompted by my own medical experiences — I had my left hip replaced in 2011, my right hip in 2013 and my right knee in 2018 — and inspired by Lucy Van Pelt’s lemonade-stand psychiatric booth in the classic Charlie Brown cartoons.

Participants were given blank booklet into which they added silhouetted images of body parts, people or possessions they would like or need to replace. The images were provided from a supply available at the table, and fixed into the books with small brass fasteners. Participants were able to stamp the images “Replaced” or “Irreplaceable” and add short personal comments.

Illness is often invisible. We can pass people of all ages on the street who look fine, but are engaged in fierce battles that show no outward signs. Replacement Parts can address not only palpable things that are replaceable (like hips and knees), but other things as well, while acknowledging that some things are simply irreplaceable. Body parts are replaced by the tens of thousand every day, but so are homes and, all too often, people such as doctors, caretakers and family members.

I provided silhouetted images of hips, knees, other body parts, people, animals, houses, and buildings to give participants a start. I will also provided paper, felt-tipped markers and scissors for anyone wishing to make their own images. After completion, participants kept their passports. Replacement Parts: A Passport to Wellness, was recreated at Printspace Brooklyn, organized with Artistic Director Ellen Coleman on January 3, 2020 to celebrate the new year.