In my work "Handle With Care: Exploring Identity and Finding a Voice as the Parent Carer of a Disabled Child " I have experimented with combining film extracts, animation and spoken word poetry to tell a little of my story and hopefully give an insight into the wonderful, challenging and frequently joyous world of caring for a disabled child and being part of a family.
My research project “From Love’s Stable Bow” started with the question “How can we use the process of animation and storytelling to support a sense of belonging within a community with a group of parents who have children with learning disabilities?"
From the project, I have a series of short films made by participants including my own film “The Boy Who was Different”
As a single parent and full time carer for my disabled teenage son, Autoethnography has been a key factor within my research.
A further question which has developed within the work is how the use of storytelling, most specifically that which involves the personal, often “unspoken” aspects can, by the very nature of their being told, act as a support mechanism for how we establish our identities, as a group or as individuals?
Holding on to Persephone is a collaborative photography project made with my daughter Lily. At the time we made this work, Lily was five years old. Following a shared care order, she lives her life between her father's house and her home with me. Lily is keen on myths and legends and I began referring to her as "Persephone"- spending half her year in the underworld. We used this as the starting point for a discussion about what it feels like to live between two homes when communication is limited. Through our photographs, we have used double exposures as a tool to represent being present and gone at the same time. Lily chose one image and wrote a story "Furby's Bedtime", which is included with the image. Making these photographs gave a certain amount of protection through play which in turn, worked as a vehicle allowing both of us to engage in a different type of conversation around more difficult subject matter. I have discussed and agreed with Lily which work could be shown and recognise her co-ownership of this project. We both hope that this work will encourage others to talk about how you might hold on to relationships when, for whatever reason, you find yourself in a position where you must live part of your lives apart.
Funded by the Comenius Grant Scheme, working with Martin Wolfers, Klaudia Moczygemba, Brendan Commane and Heidi Westgate, I ran a series of arts based workshops, with learning disabled participants from The Lindfield School in Eastbourne and Franz Marc Schule in Dusseldorf. Starting with drawing conversations and getting to know one another through portraiture, we worked together on the theme "Water/Wasser", we made sculptures from objects found on the banks of the Rhine and on Eastbourne Beach. During our time together we visited galleries in England and Germany, learning about our similarities and differences. In March 2015 we exhibited work at Jugendherberge Düsseldorf, the youth hostel where we had stayed during our initial visit to Germany. A further exhibition of work was shown at The Lindfield School in Eastbourne in November 2015.
Since completing the project, we have been awarded further funding though Erasmus + and are developing a two year collaborative film and photography project starting in October 2017 .
Made for "Annual Schools 2016" at Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne. Working with Alice Seabrook and Amy Franklyn. Our main intention was to create moving line by animating our processes. We experimented with a variety of media including pencil, paint, charcoal, chalk, oil pastel, printmaking, collage and digital media. While some of the work is in direct response to the examples included from the gallery store collection, other parts are quite simply a celebration of mark-making. Students have worked on certain sections individually whilst also collaborating throughout the project, working with David Morris to compose music for the final piece. This has provided opportunities to experiment play and create a platform for celebrating a diverse range of abilities. The work was on show at Towner from 26th March - 5th June 2016
Organised by the University of Brighton Drawing Research Interest Group: DRIG. In support of The Hummingbird Project, the day included a sale of drawings and paintings donated by staff, students and friends. Over £200 was raised and a range of drawing activities and discussions took place in the spirit of Refugee Solidarity. Outcomes included drawings, paintings and poetry. I made this film to document the event and to share with the practitioners involved.