At the height of her illness Maddy Tregenza sobbed into a bowl of yogurt, convinced its contents would destroy her.
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So her family took a photo.
The confronting and heartbreaking black and white image has been the catalyst for her twin sister’s Higher School Certificate artworks title When Ana ate my sister – a series of five portraits symbolising Maddy’s descent into and recovery from anorexia nervosa.
“Watching Maddy go through this was horrific,” Imogen Tregenza, 18, said.
“Especially at the beginning when she was so really fragile and so tiny. It was like anything could break her and it was painful to watch because it was hard to be there for her and understand at the same time.”
As Maddy started to recover she dyed her hair pink and, for Imogen, that symbolised the beginning of her sister’s return.
“I’ve used the colours pink, purple and yellow as signs of Maddy’s recovery,” Imogen said.
“And, as the artworks go along, the paint gets thicker and at the end there is confetti and butterflies as a celebration of Maddy’s return.
“The final image is another black and white photo of Maddy and the paint has been scraped off to show that Maddy is on top, but if you scrape back the paint then this is always going to be something that will always be underneath.”
The Mount View High School student was diagnosed with the eating disorder last year resulting in a 20 kilogram weight loss in just six months.
“A lot of people like to idolise the idea of having an eating disorder, but if they can see the kind of pain that comes from it through art it’s nice to know the message is being portrayed,” Maddy said.
“But it’s also hard to realise the pain I caused for everyone. But not once did I realise what I was doing was wrong.
“I thought I was in control and what I was doing was quite normal. I didn’t realise how distorted my thinking was.”
Body Image and Eating Disorder Awareness Week starts today.
Almost one in 20 Australians is thought to have an eating disorder.
Imogen’s artwork will be judged in October.
“The whole year is captured in this [series] and it was therapeutic to nut out Maddy’s recovery and to realise how far she had come,” Imogen said.
“But to also acknowledge this is something she battles everyday.”
