Body Shots
Produced for a solo exhibition at Goolugatup/Heathcote in 2022 and supported by The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries. A short video of the installation can be seen here.
Body Shots is a 4k, nine channel video installation with sound work. Each of the nine videos are nine minutes long and play on a loop. The content of the videos show candid views of the disabled body – juxtaposed with familiar landscapes and scenes. A foot that looks like no other lies on a bed of green grass, a knobbly, scarred knee rests on a sandy beach gently washed by the tide. These views link across multiple screens, forming new and unusual bodies that float in space, quietly moving and unapologetic in their existence.
Disability is not a sexy adjective. The word itself conjures up images of hospitals, of concessions made and of thoughts of what could have been. As a child in the 90’s, disability was absent from the media outside of the Paralympics and the occasional human interest story. The closest thing disabled people had to counter culture role models were characters in cartoons. Mutants and the misfits in these animated worlds had super powers and were loved not in spite of their differences but because of them. It can be argued that we’ve progressed and these days there is a much more nuanced idea of what it means to have a disability. However, the word is still there and still evokes those same thoughts of pity, fear and unease.
Body Shots seeks to address these issues by confronting the audience with the disabled body in extreme detail, forcing them to recognise the beauty created by such unique forms. The work is an extension of the themes the artist has been developing in their practice over the last three years.
The number nine is a reference to the 9% of visual artists that identify as disabled - it is used throughout the exhibition to draw attention to this woefully low statistic. Across our population as a whole roughly 20% of Australians identify as having some form of disability. Why is there this gap in an industry that prides itself on equity and inclusion? Where are the other 11% and why is it that disabled people are under-represented in contemporary practice?
4K, nine channel, nine minute video with audio. UHD panel’s , Raspberry Pi’s, coding, speakers, cabling, meranti, steel, rubber, fixings, shot bags and acrylic polymer paint.
6285 x 2800 x 1500mm
11 March - 24 April 2022
Goolugatup/Heathcote, Western Australia
Catalogue Essay – Advanced Surprise Noises
You wake up with the dusty sunlight at 10am, yellow-brown hair, waved with sleep. The room is a spartan mess, no unnecessary objects but no necessary order. Stretching with arms upraised you step out of bed and immediately drip to the floor.
Looking down you realise that there is a [picture of Body Shots] where your [picture of a Kardashian or similar] should be. That’s strange you think to yourself as you grope around for your socks. One is in the pocket of your pants but you think the other might be under the bed. You snake your arm underneath the slats and around the unwashed clothes, stroking the floor as you go. Your hand bumps against something heavy. Grabbing the object and pulling it out reveals a battered 2011 [picture of meat]. You open the [picture of meat] to find it’s completely dead. Do you:
a. Ask for more shifts at work (Open your mouth)
b. Spend the morning writing grant applications with a pencil (Close your eyes)
You asked for more shifts but got rejected and fired. Do you:
a. Cry and beg for your job back (rub your left eye)
b. Find out how much artists with a [picture of a big purple elephant] earn (smack your chin)
c. Blame the pencil (twinkle both eyes)
After crying for a bit longer you finish getting dressed and slouch into the kitchen to enjoy your favourite bowl of [picture of cat waving]. You sit at the worn table drinking coffee and slowly eating [picture of cat waving]. You pull out your phone, un-cracked this month, and scan your inbox. Mainly junk and invitations to things in other places. You’re about to put it back in your pocket when a Subject line catches your eye. “Earn CA$$$$H NOW!!! –reply BIG money”. Do you:
a. “Earn CA$$$$H NOW!!! –reply BIG money” (stick out your tongue)
b. Go outside for a [picture of a basket of vegetables] (blink thrice)
You quickly tap out “BIG money”. On hitting send a vortex of darkness immediately opens beneath you. Spiralling through the totality of your failed ambitions, screaming and incoherent you fall blindly to fuck knows where. A prick of light appears in the distance. It grows rapidly until it takes up half of the sky, time seems to slow down.
[Body Shots]
After what seems like hours you become aware of an elephant sitting next to you. The animal turns to you and offers you two choices. Do you:
a. Listen to the elephants choices (pick your nose)
b. [picture of a box of vegetables] away (pull your ear)
Wrong choice. The enraged pachyderm blasts you off across the void. The prick of light returns, growing exponentially. Suddenly you’re back at the table, coffee cup poised halfway to your mouth. As you take a sip you look back at the phone and see a reply from the team at “Earn CA$$$$H NOW!!!”. Sweet. You open the email, you’ve been offered a platinum tier membership with uranium perks. All you have to do to accept is ring them. Do you:
a. Ring the number and “Earn CA$$$$H NOW!!!” (lick your greedy lips)
b. Sharpen that stub of a pencil and get to work (flare your nostrils)
Ok. First things first. You go outside to look for the pencil stub. You’re pretty sure that [picture of Kim Kardashian or similar] had it last night and left it on the sofa near the hole in the fence. It’s sunny out here so you take your shirt off, feels nice. Moving through the overgrown garden, full of weeds and broken furniture you start to think about hearing a noise. It could sound like a cicada but drawn out, like someone had recorded the sound and is playing it back at half speed. It makes you think about your bank balance which in turn makes you think about how wet your kneepads are. Fucking sucks hey. The noise stops but you’re intrigued. Do you:
a. Investigate the source of the strange noise (shake your head)
b. Sign up to SEEK and start applying for level 3 government jobs (inflame your eyelids)
Your eyelids begin to tingle. A warm glow coursing across the back of your head pushes out through the sockets and into the back of your skull. It races down your neck, expanding through your chest. The heat is intense now and you begin to float. The fire rushes down below your groin and into your legs. You are engulfed.