Last months artwork

 Back in June, I created a small edition of this linocut.

Practicing Stillness amidst Covid confusion, linocut, edition of 13, 10x15cm, 2022

And three of this edition have now landed in Queensland, to be part of the Printbank Mackay's biennial Print Exchange.

As many of you already may know, I love Print Exchanges. It is a great tradition in the printmaking world. Over the past decade, I have participated in dozens of exchanges, across the planet.

Printbank Mackay is one of my favourites. They are lovely people to work with, such that it is possible that I have been part of every Print Exchange they have held. They also encourage artists to send each art postcard individually in the mail. This means that each artwork ends up with a stamp and postmark as well as the scuffs of postal travel. And as someone passionate about stamps and postmarks, this makes me super happy! 

Here is the backside of the artwork (prior to postal travel).

Back side of the artwork. The text reads:
2/13 Practicing stillness amidst the covid confusion, linocut, 2022
As a disabled person reliant on health care, it is a massive feat to say calm as the health system collapses and eugenics advances.
This linocut reflects some of my daily struggle in an ableist society during covid times.
I am a proud disabled queer artist, living in Narrm, working across a printmaking, street art and community art practice.

Each year there is a theme and this years was 'Still'.

This artwork was important for me to make. I have spent a lot of the past two years, attempting to speak about the increasing difficulties in accessing health care. Covid times have made my life and those of many others dependant on health care, really difficult. But in response to my rants, I have often experienced denial and gaslighting. It has been hard. And so this year, I have been trying to be calm and rant less. And make more art!

Of course easier said than done, when the health system continues to buckle under the pressure of increasing Covid (and Long Covid) cases, as well as staff leaving the industry due to burnout. And my health just gets worse.

At the moment, it feels like the incredible strain that the health system is under is getting more media attention. It makes me feel more seen. But I also despair as I am not sure that this attention will bring any real or lasting change. Especially as those that are most affected by a failing health system, are those already with much less voice, those marginalised by poverty, race, gender diversity and disability.

My hope is that this artwork brings some visibility to this issue. 

And right now, I am feeling some relief, as one of my medications that I have been waiting on for some weeks, has just arrived. Hoping for some less pain disturbed sleep tonight.

Another Disability Pride Month art moment...

 In this last week of Disability Pride Month in July, I did a bit of guerilla art on the Footscray Telstra Building, which until recently held the Disability Pride is Back! Mural.

I pasted up some letters based on my linocuts. It reads:

'To all my disabled folk, 

    Happy Disability Pride Month

             July 2022'

The wall was looking pretty bare, apart from a few tags and some ghost remains of the original mural, which you can see more in these two photos. (Back in 2018, I was experimenting with using silicone to attach these particular artworks, so whilst the artworks are now gone, the shadows remain!)

I wanted to do a shout out for those out for those who miss the mural. And create some visibility for Disability Pride Month.  And this little paste up matched my spoons for this week. 

Let's hope this paste up stays awhile.

Happy Disability Pride Month

July is Disability Pride month!!. 

It is regularly celebrated in USA, but still relatively new here in Australia. 

(It is in July, because the ADA - Americans with Disabilities Act, was first signed on 26 July 1990.) 

'Thinking of you', Linocut, screen print, and found postage stamp, Edition of 8, 12x12cm

backside of the artwork

To welcome in this year’s Pride month, I made this new artwork, with new invented postmarks. 

The postmark on the back uses the Australia Post logo and one of their designs, but changes the wording to incorporate one of the disability rights slogans ‘Piss on pity’.

Disability Pride is about being proud of our lives and celebrating human diversity. It is also being proud of our struggle to resist ableism and speak back to attitudes of charity and pity.

This small artwork will be exhibited in Queensland in August at Umbrella Contemporary Arts gallery. Yay!

It has taken me ages to make this post, because things have been a bit chaotic in my life with few spare spoons this month whilst in a chronic pain/fatigue crash. This is mostly due to the ongoing difficulties in accessing the supports I need, mostly due to the impacts of Covid. But knowing it is Disability Pride Month and the history of disabled activism that has led to this moment, has brought me comfort. It has also given me extra permission to not get so down on myself for being  ‘too emotional’, or not reading the signs well and upsetting others, as well as not meeting my obligations and commitments. Being hard on myself like this, is an expression of ‘internalised ableism’. Thus, Disability Pride is also about recognising when we enact ableism upon ourselves, and remembering that this is related to systemic, cultural ways of thinking that believes that disabled people are lesser. And we are not! 

Disability Pride is also about finding ways to be kind to ourselves and each other. 

Here’s to all disabled people across the world. I am thinking of you!

 

 

And some other news on the Disability Pride Mural!

Some more excellent news on the Disability Pride Mural, is that our short 10 minute documentary film, The Disability Pride Mural, directed by Naomi Chainey and produced by myself in 2019, is finally now available to watch for free on Youtube! 

This short documentary film tells the story of Australia’s first Disability Pride Mural, located in Footscray, Melbourne/Naarm. This Mural was first made in November 2017, but was accidentally removed a week later. Through the fierce determination and spirit of the disabled community, this mural was recreated and reinstalled a year later in 2018. This short film explores concepts of ableism, Disability Pride, and the power and complexity inherent in identifying as disabled/with disability. It features Larissa MacFarlane, the lead artist producer of this mural, and many other prominent members of Melbourne's disability/arts community.

This film, directed by Naomi Chainey and produced by Larissa MacFarlane, was made upon the unceded sovereign lands of the BoonWurrung and WoiWurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders of these lands and follow their laws to harm no land, no animal, no person.

We also acknowledge the struggle of our disabled ancestors across the world and the long history of the fight for our human rights. It is their hard work, that we build upon today, and that has led to this Disability Pride mural.

Feel free to share it around with your networks. 

I really hope this film helps with practicing your Pride!

 

And my last bit of news on the Disability Pride front, is that I plan to run some Disability Pride Badge making workshops in the second half of this year!!

 

a previous workshop

my new gold badge maker!

I want to provide these workshops because the increase in ableist and eugenicist messaging during these Covid years, has really undermined the confidence of so many disabled people, including myself. Hence, I am keen to create these opportunities to practice Disability Pride, in community, with our peers, and rebuild our power and passion!! 

 

Let me know if you are interested. Or if you would like me to visit and run a workshop with your disability group or community. These will be in Melbourne to start with, but I might branch out (covid depending). Where I can, I plan to provide these workshops for free or by donation to cover costs.

 

 

That's it for now!

 

Looking forward to catching up with folk, albeit in good crip and covid time.

 

And wishing you all much pride in the upcoming Disability Pride Month that is July! 

 

 

More news on the Disability Pride Mural!

In other news about the Disability Pride Mural, we have made a book!!! And it is excellent!

 

Over the past few years, I have been working with community artist and disability ally, Debbie Qadri, and together (mostly Debbie!) we have created an awesome photo-essay book. 

It documents the story of the two murals in 2017 and 2018, highlights the importance and struggle for Disability Pride and how art is negotiated in public space. 

It has lots of photos as well as words!

 

We have been busy, albeit slowly, distributing it to libraries, community, disability and arts centres and organisations across Australia and internationally.

 

We are also sending all the artists and people involved in the mural your own copy! (Please get in touch if you haven't received yours by the end of July.)

 

If you have suggestions of organisations or places that you think should have this book, especially if they are willing to display it or loan it out, please let me know. The more people, both disabled and non-disabled, that see and read this book, the more we can build a Disability Pride movement in Australia!

 

At the moment the book is not for sale. We self-funded a small run of only 250 copies which we are providing free or by donation.

 

Of course, if there is demand, then we may reassess and get more printed. 

 

If you would like to own your own copy, please get in touch with me.

 

We hope to have an online and in person launch of this book in the coming months. Stay tuned!

Here is a link to a short summary of the book on Trove.  https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/238888697

And if you would like to read or share the book online, you can access or download it here. https://debbieharmanqadri.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/disability-prides-is-back-essay-by-debbie-qadri-and-larissa-mac-farlane-13-mb-22.6.2020-.pdf

 

It is also available on the Academia website!

 

 

 

 

Update on the Disability Pride Mural in Footscray, Naarm

It has been quite some time since I have posted about the Disability Pride Mural in Footscray. 

I hope that you are all surviving, and maybe even thriving in these difficult times. And if you are not, I am sending you my love and please know that you are not alone. These are really tough times for many, especially many disabled people. 

 

Last month, after more than 3 years on the Exchange Building on Nicholson St Footscray, the Disability Pride Mural was removed. 

Sadly, the Mural was hit with much graffiti and tagging during Covid times. These weren’t likely to be targeted attacks, as most of the surrounding area in Footscray has been similarly tagged.  It was also showing many signs of much wear and tear. After all, this was a paste up mural and not actually designed to last this long! 

 

And so over the past 6 months, I have been in discussions with Maribyrnong City Council and last month, we came to an agreement that it needed to be removed.

 

I understand that for some of you reading this, especially if you were one of the 50-60 artists involved in this mural, this news might bring up some difficult feelings. That makes sense, given that it was such a long, difficult road to reinstate the mural after it was first destroyed. If anyone needs to chat, please get in touch with me. 

 

But whilst this mural has been removed for now, the legacy of Disability Pride stays with us. For me, this mural represents a celebration of the unity and strength of disabled people, as well as our shared struggle to resist ableism and discrimination. This current removal does not mean the end of Disability Pride. It lives on in our hearts and stories and community. 

 

The good news is that the Maribyrnong Council want to fund a new Disability Pride mural! 

 

Unfortunately, my health and capacity remain pretty low, and I am not currently in a position to lead any new project. But I am hopeful that in the coming months, particularly as we hopefully find better ways to manage the Covid impacts on disabled people, a plan will emerge. If you have any thoughts or ideas, or want to express your interest in being involved in a new Disability Pride project, please get in touch. (Although I may take some crip time to respond.)

 

 

 

And stay tuned for some more exciting Disability Pride news in my next post!

 

 

A new beginning!

It has been simply ages since I posted an update here!  Whilst I have continued to make much art, albeit much less in Covidtimes, I haven’t been sharing it much online. This is probably because using online spaces has become much more difficult for me in recent years. One of my quirks is a condition called Vestibular Syndrome. It is often associated with brain injury, and it has unfortunately got much worse over the past 5 years (possibly triggered by undertaking a medical trial of TMS…but that is another story!) 

For me, Vestibular Syndrome expresses itself as nausea and dizziness, and is often triggered by online spaces, especially if they have many moving parts. It has been a real shit! Especially as we entered Covid and almost everything went online!

This, combined with increased chronic fatigue and chronic pain, in large part due to ongoing difficulties accessing health care and support due to covid, has also greatly impacted my mental health. Things have been very messy at times over the past 2 years!

 

But I have had some recent small overall improvements. And I am getting better at practicing having more realistic expectations of my actual 'Envelope of Energy' (also called 'spoons' in the chronic illness community).

 

So there may be a few more updates of my creative practice in the near future!

 

For now, I will share this relatively recent linocut. Close Encounters of the Vestibular Kind. This artwork has had quite a long journey to completion. I began carving in 2019. I proofed it in March 2020, just before we went into lockdown. I then managed to do little bits of work to complete the carving here and there. And in January 2022 this year, almost 2 years later, I was finally able to complete and edition it.

 

It is now an edition of 26. And is finally now available to purchase. Please contact me if you are interested. 

It is part of new collection of work, most of which are still in slow progress!

Close Encounters of the Vestibular Kind, linocut, 21cm x 21cm

 

This small linocut references my experiences of living with chronic illness in our contemporary capitalist world that values production and ability over rest and disability. This works also refers to the Vestibular Syndrome that I live with, that causes dizziness and nausea, often exacerbated by poor design of online spaces. 

This linocut was proofed in March 2020, as most of Australia first started responding to Covid 19 and isolating. I, alongside many other disabled people, quickly realised that this experience of isolation is something that we well know and have developed strong skills around managing. But instead of having opportunities to share our knowledge, we were mislabelled as vulnerable. And with that one word, disabled people have been re-stereotyped as needing of help, erasing the complexity of our lives, and making our lived experience wisdom unable to be understood.