Republic of Ill Diagnosed Persons Passport, 2010, Digital and screen printing with vinyl cover, 3.5 x 4.75 inches. Photo: Natalie Fleming.

 

Carrie C Firman’s Republic of Ill Diagnosed Persons Passport takes a familiar object—the passport—and uses it to comment on what it means to be ill over time and within space. Rather than collecting stamps for places visited, Firman’s passport is marked for treatments received. Her work includes instructions for the people of this “Republic” that include such admonishments as: “Make no major life changes. A change or a loss in insurance will ruin your chances of continuing treatment.” Thus, powerfully and compactly, Firman marks the ways that illness is accrued over time and the ways that illness disrupt movement and change within existing social structures.

​

Carrie C Firman (b. 1982) is a graphic designer, digital artist, and educator who holds a BA in Commercial Design and Photography (Lycoming College ‘05) as well as an MFA in Visual Studies (UB ‘11). She has been awarded artist residencies in the US, Northern Ireland, England, and three in Iceland. Carrie has presented her work as creative inquiry at several international conferences, including the Center for Consciousness Studies and multiple UK Synaesthesia Association and American Synesthesia Association meetings. Her secondary body of work involves visualizing chronic pain, which often has synesthetic influences. She is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Graphic Design Program at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin.