Ally Zlatar

Understanding The Starving Artist:  An autoethnographic exploration of an artist’s lived experiences and visual art advocacy via insider-researcher insights into eating  disorders

Ally Zlatar

University of Sharjah

allyzlatar@gmail.com

This research explores the ways in which contemporary art can provide unique and valuable insights into the lived-in experience of artists with Eating Disorders. As an artist and activist, my research takes an insider-researcher approach in addressing my own experience with Anorexia, Bulimia and Orthorexia. My personal experiences are informed by a diversity of contemporary artists not limited to American painter Jenny Saville, British photographer Kiera Faber, and German artist Ivonne Thein, who engage with visual representations of Eating Disorders. The study makes explicit the complexities in understanding Eating Disorders as a mental health matter. While Eating Disorders are primarily associated with mental illness, I argue that they are often observed through external or ‘outsider’ experiences, with a representational emphasis on physical body symptoms. This

issue is compounded by the media’s focus on aspirational body ideals relating to a ‘Culture of Thinness’. This presentation addresses the potency of art creation while living in an unwell body and the ways in which art can contribute to medical and psychological perspectives regarding embodied Eating Disorder perspectives. My autoethnographic study engages an interdisciplinary integration of key art and health literature to explore the ways in which artists’ lived-in experiences with Eating Disorders can visually communicate about the broader human condition and social values around health and wellbeing.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Ally Zlatar is an artist, scholar and activist. She is the founder of The Starving Artist; an artist initiative that utilizes creative voices as a way to create advocacy and systemic reform. She also founded The Starving Artist Scholarship Fund which helps people access inpatient mental health treatment. Her "This Body of Mine" campaign explores migrant experiences through creative voices and has helped support individuals and artists from refugee-seeking backgrounds globally. Ally Zlatar has received numerous accolades for humanitarian work; such as the Commonwealth Innovation Awards (2023), UNWomen 30 for 2030 (2024), winner of The Princess Diana Legacy Award (2021), King Hamad Award for Youth Empowerment (2022), the Lieutenant Governor's Community Volunteer Award from the Ontario Government of Canada (2023), and also special recognition from The British Citizen Award (2022). She holds a BFA in Visual Art & Art History from Queen's University & an MLitt Curatorial Practice and Contemporary Art from the Glasgow School of Art. Her Doctorate in Creative Arts was completed at the University of Southern Queensland focusing on embodied experiences of mental illness in contemporary art. Zlatar is a Lecturer at the University of Sharjah and has taught at the University of Glasgow, KICL London, and the University of Essex (UEIC). Zlatar uses art as a tool to delve into the complexity of the human experience, particularly focusing on illness, vulnerability, and authenticity. Her work draws from personal experiences and auto-ethnography to drive change. She recognizes the power in examining the unwell body and utilizes art as a means of activism, aiming to spark dialogue and create societal impact.