Dark Side Of Rheumatoid Arthritis

This piece was created as a response to a condition that is often misunderstood, not just in how it affects the body, but in how deeply it impacts a person’s sense of self. Rheumatoid arthritis is not simply about pain in the joints; it is an autoimmune condition where the body turns against itself. That idea stayed with me, the body as both home and adversary.

I wanted to explore what it feels like to live inside that contradiction.

The figure in this work is intentionally distorted, not to exaggerate, but to translate something internal into a visible form. The joints are enlarged, strained, and uneven, reflecting the inflammation and damage that rheumatoid arthritis can cause over time. But more than that, the entire body appears to be unraveling, fragile, worn, almost as if it’s being pulled apart from within. This is how I imagine the experience: not just physical discomfort, but a constant tension between holding yourself together and feeling like your own body is working against you.

There’s no clear identity in the face, no defining features. That absence is important. Chronic illness can sometimes blur the sense of self, reducing a person to their condition in the eyes of others, or even in their own mind. The figure becomes less about who they are, and more about what they are enduring.

What stands out to me most about rheumatoid arthritis is its unpredictability. It can affect people at different stages of life, often without warning, and it doesn’t follow a simple pattern. Some days are manageable, others are overwhelming. That inconsistency, that lack of control, is something I tried to embed into the structure of the piece the unevenness, the instability, the sense that nothing is quite settled.

This work is not about defining the condition in clinical terms. It’s about acknowledging the lived experience of it, the exhaustion, the persistence, the resilience it takes to keep moving forward when your own body resists you.

As an artist, I’m drawn to subjects that exist beneath the surface, things that are felt but not always seen. Rheumatoid arthritis is one of those realities. It can be invisible to the outside world, even when it is deeply present within the person living with it.

This piece is my way of making that invisible struggle visible.

It’s about giving form to something that is often misunderstood, and creating space for it to be seen with more depth, more empathy, and more awareness.

If this work resonates with someone who lives with this condition, or helps someone else understand it in a more human way, then it has done what it was meant to do.