Mental Illness and diffability are key themes in my personal life and my creative practice. In 2014 and 2015 I collaborated on this photo media work with artists Angelina Martinez and David Corby. Exploring self-injury in an art-based approach to cultivating empathy, understanding and mindfulness this work used the flower of life motif, a geometric pattern of overlapping circles as a metaphor for self-transformation. The scars used in the work are the spiralling leaf scars from the ancient pandanus tree, the species Pandanus tectorius. This work is conceptualised as a nod to Sophie Calle’s work, ‘Take Care of Yourself ‘ (2007) . It forms part of series of my autobiographical photo media works which represent queer relationships, break-ups, correspondences, health and well-being, anxiety, social phobia, depression and PTSD as subjects for art making as a re-authoring narrative form. This recent series builds out from a 1995 documentary work titled: ‘Engaged’ a queer video art work about men who have sex with men during the HIV AIDs pandemic.
Category: Photomedia
My personal artist web site is currently in development in 2020 – 2022. Thanks for dropping by….meanwhile maybe connect to an ongoing ‘living archives’ collaborative memory project and Web 2.0 artwork we are working on this year in 2021 located at https://remix.org.au
The Re-authoring Impulse – Epicormia Collective on now at NRCG Ballina | 23 November-18 December 2016
This month six Northern Rivers Artists inspired by the botanical term “epicormic” meaning new or adventitious growth from a dormant bud, or after trauma have responded to the epicormic concept as a lens for re-authoring through artistic practice after difficult personal experiences of trauma. This artist-run initiative includes artists Julie Barratt, Scott Trevelyan, Jeremy Hawkes, Julianne Zoviar Clunne, Marion Conrow and Paul Andrew. This artist-run collaboration also celebrates ten years of activities at Willowbank Studio in Alstonville and the extraordinary anniversary group exhibition Decade of Catharsis.
On now until December 18, 2016
http://epicormiacollective.com
Thank you dear dark Darkslider for this evocative music for the ‘Strange Vignettes’ video artwork I made for my art installation as part of the Epicormia Collective artist-run exhibition | The Re-authoring Impulse exhibition back in 2016 !!! https://darkslidermusic.com/strange-vignettes/
Thank you dear Scott Trevelyan and Susie Forster for making this terrific micro doc, and for kindly sharing it on You Tube, it captures the shared feeling of epicormic joy and rapture.
Thank you dear artist designer and community leader Joanna Kambourian for your impassioned and unwavering support during the past decade I am truly grateful. Thanks everyone involved in this arts and diffability ARI [2014-2017] hopefully it will inspire others to start an ARI in the Northern Rivers and anywhen too. Here is the link to our DIY zine as community archives project is here : https://au.blurb.com/b/7460964-epicormia-collective-the-re-authoring-impulse