This section of DAO provides disabled artists and writers with a space to give our readers an inside view of their art practice, share thoughts and receive comments and feedback.
These blogs provide an informative and entertaining insight into how disability and impairment are experienced from a disability perspective.
The opinions expressed in these pages are not necessarily those of DAO.
Welcome to my new blog. It’s running for a limited period of six weeks and will cover the development, rehearsal and performance period of my new show Measuring Up! I’m not planning to keep a diary but thought that each week I would try to look at the most interesting ideas or issues we’ve explored. Background 'Measuring ...
Long term readers of my blog may find a memory of me trying to use less words so as to print up post cards. This came out of that process on 16th November 2019. I think it says something's can't be said well enough so may be best left unsaid. An inarticulate speech of the ...
From Yoko’s Sky Piece VI. A homemade beeswax candle was proffered to me once. Ashamed I failed to accept it. It's been a long hot summer with amazing temperatures. I have not hidden from the sun. rarely worn a hat and rarely caked on lotion. This year I accepted the sun. I wonder about my ...
Despite a serious decline in my health, I was determined that come hell or high water (and believe me the water got pretty high due to a lack of trains, a mix up with taxis and my own acute respiratory problems) I was going to make it to London to work with a Poet I ...
I am pleased to say that I am going to have a painting – albeit one made nearly 30 years ago – in an exhibition coming up, curated by DAO's own Dolly Sen. Art & Protest: What’s there to be mad about? is on exhibition at Bethlem Gallery from 7 September to 8 November ...
Last month, I went to the Royal Drawing School in London to take part in their 2 week Drawing Marathon. This experience was the core part of my Emergence Bursary from artist-network, Shape Arts and Disability Arts Online. There was a few reasons I wanted to go; To improve my skills within my discipline To refresh ...
We are seated inside a wooden oculus, the dissection room at Summerhall. It is festival season. The tiered wooded seating is dark and curved for the purpose of peering down into a body-shaped well, where bodies where opened up for anatomical examination. Artist Brian Catling has written a new play returning to an old theme ...
Stormy skies, Fallen down trees, Where is the light? No chance of sleep. Rumbling all around, Followed by lightening, The pressure of feeling overwhelmed, is slightly worrying. When the storms begin to fade, The light begins to appear, and the pressure gives way, to help us see that the light was always here, Once we get out of the stormy circle, Our minds begin to clear, The things that ...
Yoko’s Pieces for Orchestra depend on parts 4-6 being defined by the instructive words ‘tear’, ‘touch’ and ‘rub’; words that reach out to a humane instinct within me and feel like a life lesson or summary. I feel a connection and choose my own words. Juice; From Tear to Touch to Rub Torn Into a world of death ...
The other week I had a meeting with a gatekeeper and he tore my work to shreds. He wasn’t someone I’ve ever worked with or met before. (crucially he wasn’t in any way associated with any of the organisations I’m currently working with.) We were supposed to be meeting for a mentoring session, I’d sent ...
