Drawing on Alison Kafer’s political/relational model of disability which ‘presents disability as a political site that is ever-changing and always in relation to other people, environments, and attitudes’ this workshop will explore the fluid nature of disability identity, through the lens of the contingent, changing nature of bone across individual lifetimes and through evolutionary deep time. The workshop is of relevance to those interested in posthuman explorations of animal-mineral ‘collaboration’, people with lived experiences of orthopaedic disability, and makers.
Drawing on Helen Pynor’s recent work Habitation - where she worked with her own surgically excised bone material to make a bone china object – Helen Pynor and Lizzie Crouch will guide participants to work with the materiality of bone, through the processes of making bone china objects. A conceptual, experiential and aesthetic framing will be offered, in which to create a personal object drawing on bone china technologies, metal artifacts and wax, reflecting participants’ own bodies and experiences. This will contribute to a collective artwork exploring what it means to live with temporary, evolving and/or hidden orthopaedic disability. Works will be exhibited in Artisan’s Machinery Street Gallery, Bowen Hills, Meanjin over the course of ISEA and for 5 months following.
PRESENTERS:
Lizzie Crouch, UNSW Sydney (Australia)
Helen Pynor, Independent artist"
