Thursday, July 19, 2018

Disability Pride is Back!

It's finally happening again!

The Disability Pride collaborative paste up mural will be going back up on the wall of the Footscray Exchange Building in the coming months! 

And there will be an awesome paste up party to come along to and celebrate our disability culture!

Stay tuned for dates and details.




Me at the Disability Pride wall, November 2017


Meanwhile, here's a bit of the history...

In late 2017, I co-ordinated a community project to create a paste up mural in my hometown inner city suburb of Footscray to celebrate Disability Culture and Pride.

It culminated in a night time event, as part of a bigger local arts festival, One Night in Footscray, on November 24. 

Over 40 disabled artists and activists, came together on a hot summer's evening, at the base of the Footscray Telstra Exchange building, to install a mural that had taken weeks to prepare, and that celebrated our culture and community.

It was an amazing night. 

Disability Pride is not a common occurrence in Australia, unlike other parts of the world. Whilst the USA has been holding annual Disability Pride marches for almost 30 years, there has only been a tiny smattering of Disability Pride events in Australia. So this really was an amazing night!


November 24, 2017, Mural installation party














But just over a week later, the morning after International Day of People with Disability, on December 4, the mural was erroneously removed by the local council's graffiti clean up team. 

It was supposed to have stayed there indefinitely. It had all the right permissions. It had also been partially funded by both the building owners, Telstra, and the local Maribyrnong City Council.

It was a shocking, heartbreaking moment for many of us. For some of the participating artists, it was their first time publicly identifying with disability and erasure of their stories hit hard. For other more seasoned disability activists, it came as little surprise to have our voice silenced yet again.

For the length of Australia's white history, disabled people have been marginalised, institutionalised, dismissed and denied basic human rights such as access to decent housing, education, employment, health care and civic participation. Disabled people are often pitied, viewed as a tragedy or if they are seen to exceed the low expectations placed upon them, they are then viewed as inspirational. 

Disability Pride is about reclaiming our identities and bodies as our own. It is about changing the way people think about and define disability, to break down and end the internalized shame among people with disabilities, and to promote the belief in society that disability is a natural and beautiful part of human diversity in which people living with disabilities can take pride. 

Disability Pride also seeks a different understanding of ‘disability’ beyond the medical model, which sees disability as a problem of the person, requiring sustained medical care. Instead I want people to realize the issue of ‘disability’ as a socially created problem. Management within the social model of disability requires social action and cultural, individual, community, and large-scale change.

As a woman with an acquired disability of almost 20 years, it has taken me a long time to recognise my own internalised ableism and understand the value in practicing disability pride. Which is why I was motivated to take on such a big project. 

When the mural was destroyed after only a week in place, the disabled community rose up to make this a media issue. My initial Facebook post was shared over 200 times. And the mural destruction was covered in many mainstream media. Here's some links. The Age. ABC Online The Star. The issue also got on the National TV ABC news, where I was interviewed alongside disability activist Carly Findlay.
And then I fell in a very big heap!
And for the past 6 months I have seriously struggled to know how to move forward, and put Disability Pride back on the wall. It has been truly miserable. The way forward seemed obvious - if I had done it before, then I could do it again. And of course, I am well aware of the silver lining of the whole debacle -the media coverage of the mural's destruction, has meant that the concept of Disability Pride has probably reached a far greater audience than if it had stayed on the building.
But I have remained immobilised. And there has been so much shame around my immobility, that I haven't been able to even speak up or share. Until now! Because today I acknowledge, that this isn't just an artwork. This is about identity. This is about my identity. This is about Rights. This is about the lack of respect that disabled people have in Australia, the real daily struggle that people face, and the very real fear of being marginalised once again. This is stuff that is rarely talked about outside the disability community and it is just too easy for the mainstream to dismiss.

Onwards and upwards!
Disability Pride is coming!










INK MASTERS Print exhibition 2018

Pretty chuffed to have two of my etchings included in this years' biennial Inkmasters Print exhibition, in Cairns, Queensland. 
The exhibition opens July 27 and runs until August 19, at the Tanks Art Centre. 
I won't be going, but if you can go, then please do, and let me know how it is.

Here's my 2 works.



Managing the day in the light and the dark, 2016, Etching, 21cm x 26cm






Marking the Anniversary with Vitruvius, 2016/7, etching, 26cm 35cm




This second work, in particular is very significant. It was made in 2016 to mark the 18th anniversary of my accident, although it took some time for me to feel ready to share it with the world. Here's some words that I have previously written.


Marking the anniversary with Vitruvius, etching, 2016/17
Eighteen years ago, my life was turned upside down by a brain injury, requiring me to rebuild a life based on a person who thought, felt, saw and heard the world differently to the one I had known for 29 years. I also found myself with a new birth date, an anniversary that each year presents me with a confusing dilemma of celebratory survival and deeply felt loss.  
My 18th anniversary found me taking comfort in the studies of Vitruvius and Leonardo da Vinci: both scholars, separated by 14 centuries, and fascinated by the relationship of the body to the universe. 
Taking my lead from da Vinci’s 1490 drawing, Vitruvian Man, using the same dimensions, body proportions and mirror writing that he used, I created my own manifesto to mark my entry into adulthood, using my extensive studies of the body in pain and exploring my 12 yearlong ritual of handstanding





Wednesday, July 4, 2018

I was interviewed by ABC Radio National!!!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-24/how-a-brain-injury-birthed-a-handstand-loving-artist/9184288

Last year, 2017, was a bit of a whirlwind year. A lot happened.

The year started with my health at a very, very low point but then with some new drugs, by April, things had turned around.

With new found energy and thinking clarity, I found myself undertaking all sorts of new challenges related to my art practice and disability activism.

I hope to share some of the amazing opportunities I had, as well as some of the more dramatic and challenging outcomes.

But it might take some time. After all, I do live with chronic illness, mostly associated with my brain injury. So not only is my time and energy limited, but my ability to be online and use computers is also significantly restricted (due to the ABI nausea).



Photos by ABC radio journalist Hannah Reich on the day of the interview, at Footscray Community Arts Centre



But a friend of a friend recently posted on Facebook a link to an interview I did with the ABC Radio in November last year. To be truthful, I had almost forgotten about this. It took place at the time when I was a little overwhelmed. I was in the middle of an amazing arts residency at Footscray Community Arts Centre, which included my biggest so far solo gallery show, as well as preparing for two community and public murals about Disability Pride...and I was yet to discover what it is like to be at the centre of a little media storm (more about that in another post!).

And being interviewed on the Books and Arts Show on ABC RN, was something I had dreamed might happen to me one day, but certainly not now. I was super nervous.

But it actually was a great experience. 

And so I invite you to have a listen or a read of this interview,

How a traumatic brain injury birthed an artist (and a passion for handstands)

about an important aspect of my artwork that explores my handstand practice and its relevance to disability culture.