Charming Life/Troubling Death

  • Shan Kelley
The painting presents tightly cropped view of a packaged pill dispenser held between a forefinger and thumb and framed by a gray border.
Shan Kelley, Counting every day, makes everyday count, 2020, acrylic on geotextile. Courtesy the artist.

In a pharmacy aisle, a figure holds up a pill organizer still in its packaging. From this perspective, the abbreviations denoting different time slots—morning, noon, evening, and bedtime—are brought into sharp focus. While the name of this piece, Counting every day, makes everyday count echoes a cliché adage, it also readily transforms the pillbox into a memento mori, promptly reminding viewers of their mortality. 

Paintings featured on the cover and within this issue are part of the series Charming Life/Troubling Death (2020–21) by conceptual and mixed-media artist Shan Kelley. Through different representations of pillboxes and moments of slumber, the artist reframes sickness by reflecting on mundane daily rituals. As with Counting every day […],the titles in this series insinuate an inner monologue or intimate dialogue, suggesting how time, medication, and intimacy are closely intertwined within the context of chronic illness.

The painting presents an overhead view of a person in a grey hoodie sleeping on a bed. The hoodie drawstrings are pulled tightly and tied at the person’s chin, obscuring their eyes. A black blanket is pulled up just below their shoulders. The painting’s surface is finely textured, giving the image a grainy quality.
Shan Kelley, I saw in you, reflection of a million stars that pierced and filled me of countless ways to dream and feel complete, 2021, acrylic on wood panel. Courtesy the artist.

I saw in you, reflection of a million stars that pierced and filled me of countless ways to dream and feel complete depicts a figure in bed, wearing a drawstring hood pulled tightly around the face, leaving only a small opening for air. Within their cocoon, they breathe, sleep, and dream. I saw in you […] is a portrait of anyone who has ever been sick, though coloured by the specific cycles and experiences of chronic illness. 

For the last decade, Kelley has drawn from his experience being HIV positive to inform his practice. Past works address his encounters with oppressive surveillance and over-medicalization imposed by the healthcare system, fear and judgement from friends and acquaintances, and negative stereotypes about the virus perpetuated in the media. Kelley’s work creates a personal counter-narrative to public misconceptions and stigma surrounding people living with and impacted by HIV/AIDS.



Shan Kelley was raised in the prairie backdrop of Alberta, Canada’s beef and petroleum heartland. His work sits amidst a slippage of intersections between art and activism. In this fascination with language, Kelley uses text as material, to scrutinize the ways relationships to self, identity, body, and power are deconstructed, created, and curated. After an HIV+ diagnosis in 2009 he became increasingly inspired to find his voice within the context of disease and adversity, and to push forward using art as action again apathy or surrender.

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