How do I bury you if I don’t have your body?
This series visually communicates my personal journey through the clinical, sterile IVF treatments and the physical and mental pain of this process.
In the lab, embryos are counted, graded, and numbered like samples. They’re stored frozen together in a dark, quiet room, like icy poles in the corner shop at night. In every embryo transfer, the ‘baby’ was thawed and simply slid down the tube into my uterus. Throughout the fertility treatments, I obsessively continued to swallow my defrosted embryos. The aim of the journey became obscure. Mindlessly and compulsively, I consumed the embryos like bitterly cold icy poles. It became so painful that I just wanted it to be over.
About Minami Ivory
Minami Ivory is a photographic artist and an art educator who resides in lutruwita, also known as Tasmania, Australia. She was born and raised in Hokkaido, Japan, and moved to Australia at the age of 15. Her practice ranges from analogue to digital photography. Along with a combination of analogue and digital images, she incorporates paint, text, and collage to convey meaning. Her work explores themes of cultural identity and issues affecting women in Japanese society. Ivory’s work has been exhibited in national and international exhibitions, art prizes, and photography festivals. [Official Website]
