In 2010 a groundbreaking and controversial paper entitled “What they say versus what we see: ‘hidden’ distress and impaired quality of life in heart transplant recipients” was published in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation by Dr. Heather Ross, Director, Cardiac Transplant Program, University Health Network, Toronto; Dr. Patricia McKeever, senior health researcher, Bloorview Kids Rehab,Toronto; Dr. Susan Abbey, Director, Medical Psychiatry, University Health Network,Toronto; Dr. Jennifer Poole, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Ryerson University, Toronto; Dr. Margrit Shildrick, Professor of Gender and Knowledge Production, Linkoping University, Sweden; Enza De Luca, MN, Research Associate, Cardiac Transplant Program, University Health Network; and Oliver Mauthner, MN, PhD (c) Research Associate, Cardiac Transplant Program University Health Network,Toronto.
PITH Team
This interdisciplinary research team named PITH (the Process of Incorporating a Transplanted Heart) spearheaded an effort to investigate the under-examined emotional and psychological effects of heart transplantation.
Four Artists
In order to bring this concern to the general public, they invited four artists, Ingrid Bachmann, Andrew Carnie, Catherine Richards, and Alexa Wright, to draw from PITH’s research data for the purpose of creating new works that explore diverse aspects of this complex phenomenon such as inter-corporeality, community, mythology and symbolism around the heart.
The Hybrid Bodies Project examines organ recipients’ experiences and cultural views about transplantation and links them to ideas of embodiment, identity and kinship.
Here’s the Hybrid Bodies press kit: