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Christina Baltais

Christi­na Bal­tais is a visu­al artist from Toron­to, Ontario. She’s lived with ME/CFS for the past 18 years, and uses her art­work to help process and com­mu­ni­cate her expe­ri­ences. Her body of work explores the inter­sec­tion between art and advo­ca­cy using pho­tog­ra­phy, col­lage, and sculpture.

Links:
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Web­site

Every­thing “Is Fine” Now
Sur­re­al col­lage
2022

“This col­lage is about the stead­fast pres­sure to return to ‘busi­ness as usu­al’ dur­ing a glob­al pan­dem­ic. It is sym­bol­ic of an obvi­ous major prob­lem that is far from being under con­trol, but is instead min­i­mized and ignored.”

Not My First Rodeo
Sur­re­al col­lage
2022

“This col­lage is about the slow and steady pace one must adopt when liv­ing with ME/CFS, in order to not progress the dis­ease. It’s a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent speed and way of life com­pared to the rest of soci­ety, and to the life once lived pri­or to devel­op­ing the disease.”

#Mil­lion­s­Miss­ing Shoe Series
Sur­re­al col­lage
2021

“Emp­ty shoes are a pow­er­ful sym­bol for the annu­al #Mil­lion­s­Miss­ing protest (May 12th, Inter­na­tion­al ME/CFS Aware­ness Day) because they rep­re­sent a per­son that can no longer use them because of ME/CFS.

This col­lage speaks to the iso­la­tion that comes with ME. This is shown by the lack of plan­ets or near­by life, and the great expanse of out­er space. There’s no grav­i­ty, and the high heels are spin­ning around, rep­re­sent­ing the lack of con­trol in the direc­tion of one’s life.”

Secu­ri­ty Blan­ket
Sur­re­al col­lage
2021

“This col­lage is about how catch­ing a sin­gle virus can result one’s body plum­met­ing deep into a post viral dis­ease infer­no.
The land of post-viral dis­ease and ME/CFS is sparse in sci­en­tif­ic under­stand­ing and treat­ments, the likes of which you only dis­cov­er when you find your­self there.”

Shut­ting Out the World
Sur­re­al col­lage
2021

“This col­lage is about the twen­ty-five per­cent of ME/CFS suf­fer­ers who fall into the severe or very severe cat­e­go­ry. Many spend years, even decades of their lives bed­bound and behind closed doors. Many are unable to speak, require tube feed­ing, and can­not tol­er­ate any sound, touch, or light. The lev­el of suf­fer­ing of severe ME/CFS (and the entire spec­trum of ME/CFS) is unpar­al­leled to that of any oth­er dis­ease, yet research and treat­ments remain negligible.”

Immuno­com­pro­mised
Sur­re­al col­lage
2022

“This col­lage is about not feel­ing safe or pro­tect­ed when you are a immuno­com­pro­mised per­son liv­ing in a glob­al pandemic.”

Tak­ing This Ride One Spoon at a Time
Sur­re­al col­lage
2021

“This col­lage was inspired by the Spoon The­o­ry’ — a metaphor that is used to describe the amount of men­tal or phys­i­cal ener­gy a per­son has avail­able for dai­ly activ­i­ties and tasks. This the­o­ry can help oth­ers to bet­ter under­stand the pac­ing that goes into man­ag­ing a chron­ic ill­ness, and how every activ­i­ty has a cost, or a “spoon” in this case.”