In this episode, I interview Martin O'Brien, a performance artist, and scholar. His practice and research are concerned with the performance and representation of illness and disability and consider existence with a severe chronic illness within our contemporary situation. He uses physical endurance, hardship, and pain to challenge common representations of illness and examine what it means to be born with a life-threatening disease. He has performed throughout the UK, Europe, and the USA and has been funded and commissioned by organisations such as Arts Council England, British Council, and the Live Art Development Agency.

Martin and I discuss his work, illness narratives, how he surpassed his life expectancy of 30, and compare living with Cystic Fibrosis to the practices everyone is having to adopt because of Coronavirus.

You can find out more about Martin by visiting his website here and by following him @martinobrienart on Instagram.

I'm Sian Crucefix and this is a podcast all about bodies. In each episode, I'll be navigating my relationship with my own body and having honest, inspiring conversations with a plethora of incredible guests. How we think about bodies is shaped by so many things; popular culture, religion, sexuality, relationships with food, disability, mental health...I could go on and on. As a woman who has experienced sexual assault and recovered from an eating disorder, I want to understand how our experiences inform our attitudes towards our own bodies and other people's, and figure out how we can rectify the negativity, shame and stigma directed at specific bodies that plague today's society.

You can find me and join in the conversation @_knowbodypodcast on Twitter.

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