The Joyful Scar
There are many of us who live with risk. In my case, it is breast and ovarian cancer. I am BRCA 1 positive, which means I was born with a genetic mutation that gives me an 87% percent risk of having breast cancer and a 60% risk of having ovarian cancer. My book The Joyful Scar documents my double mastectomy with reconstruction on March 11th, 2022, as well as other people’s experiences. I remember learning about my cancer risk at 15 years old; I was filled with fear and shame. The risk hung heavily inside me as it caused the death of my mom and her mom. I prepped myself for the idea that I’d look and feel broken after a surgery like this. I never thought I would choose to be so public about this process and a photobook was outside my wildest imaginations. While doubts still come at times, I’ve chosen to become the adult I needed as a child; I accept and share my story. Though I have more visible scars than I’ve ever had, contrary to my fears, I am whole.
Forever Changed
If you can hear me, I am safe
Night Of
Recovery View
Tubes are Vogue
Jordana Rubenstein-Edberg, Social Practice
Philadelphia, PABorn and raised in the DC area, art and social movements have always been intertwined. I am a documentary filmmaker and social practice artist who works alongside policy makers and community organizers to create social change. Because I collaborate with people and work in community spaces, the creative process is just as important as the artwork created.
Growing up in a youth art program at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, I saw the power of storytelling to shift perceptions, build relationships, and create unity from fragmentation. Following in this path, I have co-created visual art pieces with undocumented artists living in deportation centers in New York, families seeking asylum in Berlin, artists in the New York City incarceration system, and middle school students in the South Bronx, among others. In 2017, I received the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, an annual research grant awarded to 40 people across the U.S. During this time, I collaborated with a variety of indigenous storytellers in Central and South America, as well as India, who taught me how visual storytellers can uphold histories that are systematically oppressed.
As an MFA Social Practice student at George Washington University, I created the multimedia project (Un)Natural Divides which explores the different conceptions of safety and belonging in Washington D.C as well as The Body Spectrum, a documentary exploring how the gender spectrum opens the door for people of many experiences and body types to be seen, heard, and loved. As part of my thesis project, I am releasing The Joyful Scar, a photography book documenting my own and others experiences receiving double mastectomies for breast cancer prevention.
Following my time at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, I am excited to create documentaries with my own production company, UnderstoryDocs.