Marysa Dowling, Ellen & Marysa, WhatWeCarry
Pain is invisible – frequently misunderstood, uniquely experienced and difficult to verbalise. Even healthcare professionals struggle to grasp its true impact, as reducing pain to a numerical scale fails to capture how it fractures daily life, relationships and identity. My project makes pain visible through artistic expression, revealing personal realities that clinical assessments struggle to access.
Over the last 18 months, I have worked with participants who live with Chronic Pain. Through photography, writing, mark-making and storytelling, the collaborative creative process becomes both therapeutic and clarifying. Participants find ways to express what was previously trapped within their bodies. At its heart, this work addresses a basic human need: to be seen, understood and believed.
Since 2023, I have collaborated with Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, the Chronic Pain Neurotechnology Network and individuals living with chronic pain. I listen empathetically to understand each person’s unique truth before offering creative processes that help them express their pain authentically. Visual themes are tailored to each person’s circumstances.
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Marysa Dowling is a London-based artist of Irish descent whose practice centres on human behaviour, relationships, social interaction and co-creation. Working with photography and other media, Marysa develops inter-community and cross-cultural conversations and collaborations. Her practice has been described as thoughtful and playful.
Marysa has cultivated creative initiatives across Cuba, India, Ireland, Lebanon, London, Los Angeles and Mexico. Her recent projects include knowledge-exchange collaborations with researchers from Oxford University’s neuroscience department (2024-25) and researchers from University College London as part of their collaborative art commissioning programme Trellis 3 (2021-22). Other commissions include People Powered, National Portrait Gallery (2022) and Paper Gift, GOSH Arts (2022). As an arts educator, she has been in residence at ITESO University Mexico (2017- 2024) and has led workshops and courses at The Courtauld (2010-present) The National Portrait Gallery (2008-24) and The Photographers Gallery (2015-20), among others. Marysa is a recipient of an Arts Council England artist grant (2023) and was a winner of British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain (2022). Her work has been exhibited at Belfast Exposed, El Museo De Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey (Mexico), Korea International Photo Festival, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern, The Photographers Gallery and is in the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery.
Marysa Dowling
What We Carry: Living with Pain
John Radcliffe Hospital
Headley Way, Headington,
Oxford,
OX3 9DU
25 October–
6 December
Artists Talk:
7 November
The exhibition programme is shown as part of the artlink hospital arts programme funded by Oxford Hospitals Charity
Access information: Wheelchair accessible
How to get there: The exhibition is shown in the Corridor Gallery, in the main entrance corridor of the John Radcliffe Hospital. Head towards the League of Friends cafe and the gallery is on the left hand side.