Artist Statement
What are we? emerged out of conversations with a group of friends. Inspired by the following quote by Fiona Kumari Campbell (2013), “A relational, counter ableist version of impairment might explore what the experience of impairment produces and ask how does disability productively colour our lives?”. Through sharing our lived experience of disability & chronic illness – & how an animist lens might assist in blurring the pathological categorisation that occurs in the ableist society we inhabit – rich conversations emerged.
Can an animist perspective, a sense of there being other agents in play beyond the human, tapestried with an awareness of the ableist framework, shape shift – create alternative ways of experiencing reality & understanding ourselves & our relationship with the diverse social & biological ecologies we are part of?
Having a digital space to share asynchronously allowed for imaginative threads to diffract, coalesce & weave themselves in our lovingly tended digital space. The spoken word piece was a riff – an improvised response with – in this thick conversational thread. The music emerged alongside the riff during the same time period and the two were merged with visuals to create the whole.
A random visit from a friend, Ilona McGavock, developed into an impromptu recording session which the gorgeous violin arrangements emerged out of.
THANK YOU to my dear friends who have inhabited the eye of the whale with me & thus are co-creators of this work & Headquarters for spurring me on with financial support & a deadline. Especially the Black Hole Collective : Craig Slee, Julie Johnson, Aerin Dunford, Natasha Terry & Irin Tudor : & Tricky Singer
If you would like to find out more about the work and become part of the conversation go here: https://www.what-are-we.com
Artwork Credits
Spoken word, music & visuals by Marianthe Loucataris
Violin arrangements & performance by Ilona McGavock
