Archive of illness

I first started writing this piece in 2020, when during the day I was working on a PhD using archival research and at night I was unpacking and settling into a new home. In both capacities, I was keenly considering objects and the place they hold in my life and home. I was interested in how these objects felt like both a part of me and beyond me. These ideas were made more urgent when considering how objects have an inextricable connection to my own ill health. A dodgy piece of pottery, a cucumber plant, and sketches put together with cheap acrylic paints all became and continue to be a part of my archive as someone with lived experience of multiple chronic illnesses. Yet as this was written five years ago – perhaps ironically – I now consider this essay a part of an archive on objects and illness, instead of a snapshot of my present life.