The curator for The UnmaskED Project at SFU Vancouver is so involved in her art, she is literally part of the exhibit.
Clare Sieffert, an international studies student at SFU, has put together the UnmaskED Project. The “ED” is purposely stylized as such to stand for ‘eating disorders.’
The photography collection is being displayed at the entrance to the SFU’s Harbour Centre campus. It is made up of strikingly intimate portraits of people who have a history with eating disorders.
The exhibition is designed to show viewers that eating disorders can affect anyone, regardless of how they look. Sieffert aims to help tackle the stigmas surrounding the issue.
Included in the eighteen subjects for the display is Sieffert’s own portrait.
“I really do think it was a double standard, like absolute hypocrisy, to not be willing to put myself and my relationship with food out there,” said Sieffert. “That’s very self-centered to think that my relationship with food is more complex and more difficult than other people’s relationship.”
She continued, “If I’m asking people to put themselves out there, then I should be willing to do the same.”
At first glance, the portraits can blend into the background — a striking metaphor for those who are silently suffering, Sieffert explained.
For those who take the time to observe the large faces displayed at the entrance, they’ll notice the prompts directing them to UnmaskED’s website, where all participants have answered the same three main questions: what role food has in their life, how people saw eating disorders in their life, and what advice would help best if they were currently struggling.
The photo exhibition features people from all over the world, with four continents and nine different countries represented. Everyone featured has experience with eating disorders, but has not necessarily suffered from one themselves, and so it gives a fairly complex spectrum of the views associated with these issues.
Sieffert was first diagnosed with an eating disorder as a teen, and in her responses on the website calls her relationship with food one that is love/hate.
She said that she volunteered to undertake this project because of the empathy she has towards anyone who is experiencing what she first went through, from how it shapes her patterns in everyday life to how she sees the world.
“I hope to reach out to the broader community,” she said. “It’s not just saying ‘Here are these faces,’ [instead] it’s ‘Here is myself and people I know, and we want to talk about eating disorders.’”
She continued, “It makes it more of an open invitation for people to engage with the project because they can connect with somebody. [. . .] It further helps to humanize the project by incorporating someone who is so close to the community.”
Sieffert’s is just one of the 18 stories featured, and the exhibit provides a learning experience for those who are unaware of what life with an eating disorder can mean.
The UnmaskED Project will be at the Harbour Centre from now until Oct. 5 and is being put on with the support from the Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre, SFU Health and Counselling, and SFU Vancouver Administration.
