Giving Eloquent Voice to One in Eight : A searing exhibition at Santa Monica College on the issue of breast cancer

“One in Eight: Women and Breast Cancer,” now on display at the Santa Monica College Art Gallery, is the work of 12 artists who have had breast cancer. It is not an easy exhibit to view. But then, breast cancer is not an easy disease to explain or, in many instances, to survive.

The growing incidence of breast cancer--a disease that according to an upward-revised estimate will afflict one in eight American women--has brought forth much anger and debate about the funding for research if not consensus about the disease’s causation or a cure. “One in Eight” mirrors for breast cancer the despairing, wry creativity that has marked the suffering and death caused by AIDS.

Anger is an easy emotion to stoke amid the growing ranks of breast cancer survivors. Consider just the recent charges of scientific fraud in large-scale research studies and the continuing--and confusing--debate among physicians about the advisability of regular mammograms for younger women and the efficacy of the less-radical surgical treatment options. Add in the absence of clear progress toward a cure and the alarming number of new cases.

Many of the pieces in “One in Eight” reflect that deep, raw frustration; “Left Breast, No Nipple” displays the artist’s breast prothesis atop a circular saw blade, mounted on black velvet.

To be sure, there are victories in the war against breast cancer, survivors, even apparent cures. The “One in Eight” artists are certainly among them. In “Some Days You Feel So Alive” a woman dances against a magnificent sunset. But still the casualties mount. Forty-six thousand deaths from the disease are predicted this year alone.

Art gives voice to the despair. And sometimes art prompts hard questions about how we allocate increasingly scarce federal research dollars and how we might do better--questions that can change policy. This year the National Institutes for Health is spending $10 billion on research, $204 million specifically on breast cancer. Is this enough? No. Proposed federal legislation would increase research spending substantially through a 1% surcharge on health insurance premiums. The plan could generate an additional $6 billion annually. More for breast cancer, more for AIDS, more for Parkinson’s disease, and so on. The idea is well worth exploring.

“One in Eight” runs through April 23 (the exhibit is dark this Monday through Saturday, during the Santa Monica College spring break).