"In The Power of Your Care": Examining Autonomy and Disability in Hannah Wilke's "Why Not Sneeze"

 

 

"Why Not Sneeze" Hannah Wilke, 1992.

Wire bird cage, medicine bottles, syringes

7 × 9 × 6 7/8 in

 

 "In the Power of Your Care" is an exhibition put on in 2016 by The 8th Floor examining "health and health care as human rights, and the interdependencies of care in our culture, from personal relationships to systems of care in a policy context."  The exhibition featured many artists whose work addresses illness or disability.

Hannah Wilke's "Why Not Sneeze," is described as a sculptural portrait. Wilke's medical waste, including medicine bottles and syringes, are encapsulated in a found wire birdcage. The title of the work is an allusion to Marcel Duchamp's "Why not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?," a sculpture using a found wire birdcage that encases marble cubes that resemble sugar cubes. 

The question "Why not sneeze?" begged by Duchamp's original work of art is meant to be a type of rhetorical question. Sneezing is an involuntary bodily function, and so there is no point in asking questions about sneezing, as if a person has any control over whether they sneeze or not. I believe this idea of involuntary bodily functions is seminal to Wilke's work. In her work, the question "Why not sneeze?" serves as a sort of ideological placeholder for any other involuntary bodily function. For people with chronic illnesses or disabilities, some of their bodily functions are outside of their control, but the dominant narrative around disability is that these people have some form of control over their disability, or what their bodies can do. Wilke is saying that she is not in control of her body as much as people would think, and to suggest that she can control these things is as nonsensical as asking someone to control how they sneeze.