And Suddenly I Disappear… cycles of inspiration

 

This is a story of collaboration and inspiration…. of how a project inspired a poem and the poem inspired a design and the design became a poster and therefore the image for the project…

There is a poetic symmetry to this cycle of inspiration which I find hugely satisfying.

I am in the midst of an international collaboration – And Suddenly I Disappear: the Singapore ‘d’ Monologues. commissioned by Unlimited, which you can read about here, here, and here. My collaborator in Singapore, Peter Sau, had recently embarked on a massive research exercise, gathering the stories from d/Deaf and disabled Singaporeans to inspire The ‘d’ monologues I would write. One of Peter’s research volunteers, Shai (Nur Shafiza Shafie) became fascinated with the title…. what might the ‘d’ stand for? That tantalising enigmatic letter became a thought, became a response to the project and our ambitions – and became a poem:.

Invitation to D

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Dearest,

Disadvantaged, disempowered

Despised, deprived, downtrod

Deviant, daring and disturbed

Devoutly disillusioned with God

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Destroyed, damaged and dirty

Dishevelled and disheartened

Dismayed, depressed and dreary

Demonised yet defiant

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Determined, deserving, delicate

Different, distinct and diverse

Disabled, deaf and deliberate

Definers of your own dark universe.

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Do it. Defy the disbelievers.

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Disarm them. Deflect them.

Dance around their dreadful hum.

Devour them. Diminish them.

Drown their egos with your drum.

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Decry them. Deplore them.

Dilapidate your despair.

Disturb them. Distress them.

Devastate them if you dare.

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Debate them. Debunk them.

Dig down deeply for the fight.

‎Destroy them. Defeat them.

Drag them kicking to the light.

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(C) Copyright Shai (Nur Shafiza Shafie) 2017

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The project’s UK producer, Grace Khoo, shared Shai’s words with me and I was delighted that our project was inspiring such a creative response from our generous volunteer.

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Then Shai’s poem was seen by our publicity and marketing designer Ho Su Yuen, who swiftly responded with a striking block letter design, using the words from the poem. I, meanwhile, was developing the title of the project. A common theme seemed to be emerging from the video footage and transcripts from the interviews – that of d/Deaf and disabled people being made invisible. This sentiment offered the full title to me: And Suddenly I Disappear…. The Singapore ‘d’ Monologues. The new title was passed on to Ho Su Yuen, who immediately responded with a new offering. 

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Various conversations followed and the design went back and forth as it evolved, Grace and Sara Beer (collaborator on the project and development officer for Disability Arts Cymru) advising on making the logo more accessible.

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And suddenly – there it was…. The beautiful bold image, above… the logo for our project, the poster image created from defiant poetry written in direct response to the interviewees who are inspiring the fictional monologues. This is such a wonderful example of how generosity feeds inspiration and creativity generates more creativity…

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With great thanks to Shai (Nur Shafiza Shafie) and Ho Su Yuen for your beautiful contributions.

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Commissioned and supported by Unlimited, celebrating the work of disabled artists, with funding from Arts Council of Wales and British Council.

The Singapore ‘d’ Monologues

 

Ramesh Meyyappan from his website http://www.rameshmeyyappan.com

As announced at the No Boundaries Conference yesterday by Jo Verrent and Tony Heaton, I have been fortunate to be selected as one of the artists for the Unlimited International Commissions for 2017/18. Full details of all of the commissions can be read here.

It feels even more of a privilege than usual to be supported by funders – and not only that, but to make an international collaboration. The award of this commission is bitter-sweet, especially on this day, Wednesday 29th March 2017, when Teresa May triggers Article 50 and turns her back on European unity. If ever there was a time for coming together and connecting across distance and perceived difference, it is now – and I am grateful to Unlimited and all the funders, allies, and supporters for recognising the value of collaboration and international dialogue, and enabling such things to happen.

The blurb:

KAITE O’REILLY – THE SINGAPORE ‘D’ MONOLOGUES

Lead artist / Playwright: Kaite O’Reilly

Director: Phillip Zarrilli

Associate Director, Researcher and Performer: Peter Sau

Producer and Researcher: Grace Khoo

Visual Director and Performer: Ramesh Meyyappan

Disability Advisor and Performer: Sarah Beer

Researcher and Performer: Lim Lee Lee

The Singapore ‘d’ Monologues is an international theatrical dialogue of difference, disability, and what it is to be human, from opposite sides of the world. Inspired by previously unrecorded disabled experience, fictionalised monologues will be precedented across multiple languages (spoken/projected/visual), incorporating aesthetics of access. This performance will set an important precedent: the first multilingual, intercultural, disability-led theatre project created between the UK and Singapore.

Award-winning playwright Kaite O’Reilly, and internationally respected director/actor-trainer Phillip Zarrilli will lead the team, joined by veteran disability arts practitioner Sara Beer and Deaf UK-based Singapore-born Ramesh Meyyappan with his innovative visual performance skills. Together with Singaporeans Lee-Lee Lim, Grace Khoo and principle collaborator, Peter Sau, the performance will open up a much-needed discourse of disability in quality, accessible disability-led work, never experienced before in a home-grown Singaporean project.

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The background:

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I first met Ramesh Meyyappan and Peter Sau in Singapore in the same year, 2004, but in different productions. Peter was performing in a production directed by Phillip Zarrilli at The Esplanade, the graduating production for ITI (Intercultural Theatre Institute, formerly TTRP). There, Peter had the extraordinary privilege to be tutored by T. Sasitharan and the father of Singapore theatre, the visionary Kuo Pao Kun.

From Tell Me When To Laugh and When to Cry (2012) Peter Sau. http://petersau.com/gallery

Ramesh was presenting his visual theatre adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Tell Tale Heart.’  Contact was firmly established with both independent artists, based on my conviction I would collaborate with them at some time in the future.

Following Ramesh’s work and occasionally participating in his workshops became easy when he relocated to Scotland, where he has been a leading light in physical/visual theatre.  Teaching Dramaturgy at the Intercultural Theatre Institute in Singapore has enabled me to keep in touch with Peter over the years, and he came to train with Phillip Zarrilli and I at the 2015 Summer Intensive in Wales, where the seed which became The Singapore ‘d’ Monologues was planted.

Peter is passionate about ‘theatre with a conscience’ and with his collaborators producer Grace Khoo, and mentee/performer Lee Lee Lim, they are determined to professionalise disability arts in Singapore and open up a much-needed discourse on diversity, disability and difference.

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The ‘d’ monologues:

My notion of a portable, flexible, diverse body of work informed by a Deaf and disability perspective and the Social model was initiated in 2008, when Arts Council Wales granted me a Creative Wales to explore the form of the monologue. I am not a fan of verbatim, so had many conversations with disabled and Deaf individuals all over the UK to try and get a sense of lived experience in a disabling world, the political and the personal, spiced by what I call crip’ humour. These encounters inspired a series of monologues I wrote in a variety of styles. These solo texts became the basis of an Unlimited commission, culminating in the 2012 Cultural Olympiad ‘In Water I’m Weightless’ with National Theatre Wales, Wales Millennium Centre and the Southbank Centre.

Cast of ‘In Water I’m Weightless’ by O’Reilly, National Theatre Wales/Southbank Centre 2012, part of the Cultural Olympiad. Cover image of ‘Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors’. Photo: Farrows/Creative

The creative process, directed by John E McGrath with assistant director Sara Beer, choreographed by the late great Nigel Charnock, designed by Paul Clay and featuring six of the leading Deaf and disabled performers in the UK, is fully documented elsewhere on this blog (search In Water I’m Weightless, 2012). The montaged texts from this collaboration are published in my collected ‘Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors’, published by Oberon last year.

This model seemed perfect for a collaboration with Peter and colleagues in Singapore. He, Grace, and Lee Lee would initiate a series of interviews with disabled Singaporeans – lived experience never before documented or shared – and these would create the inspiration for fictional monologues I would write, and the basis of an oral archive. Peter would begin a series of skills-based workshops in Singapore with emerging Deaf and disabled performers, and Ramesh would develop visual theatre sequences.  Phillip Zarrilli would direct emerging work, joined by performer Sara Beer from the UK, with Lee Lee, Peter and Ramesh also performing. It is this r&d stage Unlimited have funded, with the ambition of a full production in Singapore and the UK in 2018.

Style and content of the Singapore ‘d’ Monologues:

We don’t yet know what form and shape this project will take – what tone, what content, what aesthetic – this will all be determined by the next six months and our collaborators. What we do know is the aesthetics of access will be a consideration throughout – and we will have a challenge with translation and captioning in quad-lingual Singapore. We hope our interviewees will have a sense of ownership, and the work will inspire and confound expectation, and the process will be one of symbiosis. I know there will be so much to learn from our Singapore collaborators, and a wealth of riches to be celebrated in this multicultural, intercultural theatre project of communication and dialogue.

UK Collaborators:

Director Phillip Zarrilli and performer Sara Beer are both long-term collaborators. I first worked with Sara with Graeae Theatre in 1987, when, as graduates, we both got our first jobs with this inspiring company. We have worked together consistently ever since, often with Disability Arts Cymru, a great organisation I am proud to be patron of.

Phillip and I have worked internationally as co-creators and collaborators for fifteen years, and has directed many of my plays, recently another Unlimited Commission, ‘Cosy’, which opened at Wales Millennium Centre in March 2016, and featured Sara as the enigmatic Maureen.

Sara Beer as Maureen in ‘Cosy’. Photo: Farrows Creative

What has come clear to me in the writing of this extended blog is the importance of Unlimited in supporting, nurturing and promoting work – in enabling creativity to flourish and artistic careers to thrive. It is such a remarkable hydra organisation with many heads and needs to be congratulated, I feel, for its ground-breaking work and determination to bring about change, its considered efforts for a more equal, and culturally diverse society.

Unlimited is an arts commissioning programme that aims to embed work by disabled artists within the UK and international cultural sectors, reach new audiences and shift perceptions of disabled people. Unlimited has been delivered by the disability-led arts organisation Shape Arts and arts-producing organisation Artsadmin since 2013, and is funded from 2016-20 by Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, British Council and Spirit of 2012.

Unlimited and all the funders: thank you.

#UnlimitedCommissions

http://petersau.com

http://www.rameshmeyyappan.com

http://weareunlimited.org.uk/about-unlimited/

Equality and Diversity Day – Wales International Documentary Festival 2017

Come along to discuss with me and many others why we need diverse voices in the stories we tell…

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY DAY – Why do we need diverse voices in stories we tell?

The Wales International Documentary Festival 2017                  supported by Film Cymru and Film Hub Wales

Thursday 6 April 2017, 11:30 – 15:30
Blackwood Miners’ Institute

Blackwood Miners Institute
High Street
Blackwood
NP12 1AA
United Kingdom
We would like to invite you to participate in a series of exciting events celebrating diverse voices in the creative industries. In partnership with training providers and organisations, Blackwood Miners’ Institute will be the setting for a FAIR of organizations, workshops and networking events.

FAIR of ORGANISATIONS and NETWORKING – 11:30 – 15:30

Chwarae Teg, Disability Arts Cymru, National Autistic Society , SHIFFT Female Filmmakers, Promo Cymru, Film Cymru, Film Hub Wales, BFI BBC, BAFTA Cymru, Creative Europe, Welsh Government, Wales Screen, British Council, BECTU, Community Music Wales, Women’s Aid, Iris Prize.

SOFA TALK – 12:00 – 13:30
Multi-award winning playwright, Kaite O’Reilly (YARD, Peeling, Persians) speaks to Carys Lewis, a Toronto and Cardiff based writer/director/producer (When Black Mothers Don’t Say I Love You, Afiach) about why we need diverse voices in the stories we tell.

WORKSHOPS

CHWARAE TEG 11:30 – 12:30
The leading economic development charity for women in Wales. This workshop will guide you through changes to working practices, whilst covering the implications for both employers and employee’s. Introducing you to modern working practices, how they can be successfully implemented in the workplace and some of the benefits to the organisation.

IRIS PRIZE Festival Director – Berwyn Rowlands 12:30 – 13:30
Distribution – how does it work? The Iris Prize is the world’s largest LGBT short film prize. This workshop will explore how film makers who create what is sometimes called minority interest work can reach a growing global audience by taking full advantage of the post digital world. The workshop will use real examples of LGBT short films which have been successful and some which have not!

DISABILITY ARTS CYMRU 13:30 – 14:30
For over 30 years Disability Arts Cymru has provided information, advice, mentoring and support to disabled artists, across Wales and across art form. This workshop will feature a screening of Changing the Focus, which explores the on-screen representation of learning disabled people in Britain, and the extent to which this representation has changed over the past 50 years. After the screening there will be a discussion with Ben Ewart-Dean and staff from Disability Arts Cymru.

DEMENTIA FRIENDS 14:30 – 15:30
In partnership with Film Hub Wales, this workshop focuses on how to become a Dementia Friend. Many UK cinemas and arts venues are already working to be dementia-friendly but many are unsure how to get started. It’s about learning more about dementia and the small ways you can help. This session will be introduced by the newly appointed BFI Film Audience Network Access Officer and Film Hub Wales Strategic Manager.
TICKETS
Entrance to the Equality and Diversity Day is FREE! Register here through Eventbright.
Festival tickets give access to all film screenings and networking events for the three days of the festival. These are priced at £12.50 and can be obtained at the Blackwood Miners’ Institute box office on the day. Discounted rates are available for schools, colleges and third sector organisations by contacting Aleksandra at contact@widf.info

@widf2017     Facebook: WIDF2017    www.widf.info

Disability Arts Cymru Poetry Competition 2016

Image from Disability Art Cymru. Image by Michele Brenton

As patron of the excellent Disability Arts Cymru, I’m delighted to publicise their call for submissions for the forthcoming Poetry Competition. What follows is from DAC. Please contact them, at the information below, with any queries and submissions:

Poetry Competition  Disability Arts Cymru – closing date July 31st 2016

       Prize money & Digital publication

  We invite you to submit work that is in response to the theme of Austerity and/or Extravagance
Two Prizes of £50 with digital & online publication
Closing date July 31st

We look forward to receiving your submissions of poetry, spread the word and share this with your friends and colleagues.

Theme of Austerity/Extravagance: In the light of recent governmental decisions, which affect many people throughout Wales, we want to reflect the feelings about this through our poetry by DAC members, many of whom have been affected by austerity measures. Contrary to this we are also asking for work in response to the theme of ‘Extravagance’.
Judges are Dominic Williams and Sian Northey

for the entry criterea you can CLICK HERE

or for more info call: 02920 551 040
or email: kate@dacymru.com

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Disability Access and Inclusion – Surgeries for Arts Organisations in Wales

As patron of Disability Arts Cymru, I’m always happy to publicise and promote the sterling work they do. What follows is information about their surgeries for Arts Organisations in Wales, regarding disability access and inclusion.

Please share with any organisation in Wales who you feel would be interested in this. Please contact Disability Arts Cymru, at the address below regarding this.

Disability Access and Inclusion – Surgeries for Arts Organisations

Disability Arts Cymru is working in partnership with Creu Cymru and Hynt to run a series of surgeries free of charge on disability access and inclusion for arts organisations.

If you are in the process of developing a Diversity Strategy or a Disability Action Plan, the surgeries are for you!

Concerned about access backstage or at your office? Wondering about employing disabled artists? Want to engage better with disabled people?

Bring your queries about practical access, front of house issues, audience development, improving access to performances, workshops, events.

At Disability Arts Cymru we are also interested in developing networks in the arts, so that we can work together to support emerging and established disabled artists. We cover all art forms and work with all disabled people, so we are keen to talk to you too and to look at how we can be more effective together.

Dates and venues:

• Thursday 9^th June – Theatr Mwldan
• Friday 10^th June – Theatr Colwyn
• Tuesday 14^th Wales Millennium Centre
• Wednesday 15^th June – Wales Millennium Centre
• Thursday 16^th June – Pontardawe Arts Centre

Times: You may book a 60 minute surgery between 10.00am and 4.00pm. There is no charge for this service

How to book:

Call Disability Arts Cymru on 029 2055 1040 or email Sara Mackay sara@dacymru.com

If you are not able to make one of the surgery dates but would like to talk to us, we will be happy to arrange another time to meet up with you. Just let us know!

Playing the Euphonium for Little Miss Sociopath’s Pageant, or what Kaite did this week.

I have always secretly loved ‘catch-me-up’ round robins – those annual missives  that coyly condense achievements into two sides of A4, whilst desperately trying not to look smug. I’m afraid this post will resemble that kind of mix and match, for it’s been a remarkable and diverse week, but perhaps not quite in the league  of some of my stateside clan (‘Dorito bagged four hoops this season, whilst Haagen-Daz has embraced the Euphonium as her special skill for the upcoming Little Miss Sociopath Pageant’).

I’m delighted to be awarded a Literature Wales writing bursary, announced late this week. The grant will enable me to dedicate a sustained period to writing fiction. Although known as a dramatist, I’ve published short prose in the past, and am currently revising a first novel.  This award will give me guaranteed ‘fenced off’ time away from whatever it is I do to keep the wolf from the door, to experiment and explore the long prose form. The list of bursary recipients and information on how to apply for future bursaries can be found at: http://www.literaturewales.org/services-for-writers/i/124046/

I’m grateful to Literature Wales for this vote of confidence along with some financial support in these cash-strapped times. I’m used to reading about grants for the arts being slashed, which makes the announcement of twenty-two writers in Wales working through through the medium of English and Cymraeg sharing £81,000 in bursaries for 2014/15 even more cause for celebration. Hurrah. And thank you.

Further celebration this week involved the wonderful Disability Arts Cymru (DAC) and their skills week, where members of their Unusual Stage School have a series of masterclasses and workshops.

Augusto Boal’s exercise: making a machine. Photo: Brian Tarr.

This photo by Brian Tarr shows me apparently conducting the members of USS in one of Augusto Boal’s exercises from the Arsenal of the Theatre of the Oppressed: ‘Machine of Love/Hate’ (‘Games for Actors and Non-Actors’). I was fortunate to have trained with Augusto in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and have used his techniques in applied drama, devising processes, and for conflict resolution across Europe. For the past ten years I’ve been focusing on performance writing whenever I’ve led masterclasses, so it was wonderful to work physically and practically with these beautiful techniques again.

Disability Arts Cymru continue to provide outstanding support, guidance, and training opportunities for actors with physical, sensory, or intellectual impairments. As I said during a lecture at the end of the day, I felt like I had come home – back to Boal’s work, where I started my theatre practice, and to DAC and disability arts and culture.

I’m increasingly concerned about the dilution of expertise and knowledge into catch-all terms such as ‘diversity’. Of course I embrace diversity and promote it in my life and work, but there are particular challenges and prejudices people with impairments face – especially in these difficult days of cuts, the Bedroom Tax and its ilk, criticism of being ‘scroungers’, and the related rise in disability hate crime. An organisation like DAC, who are part of that community and have great understanding, experience, and specialism built up over decades should continue this expertise and not be asked to broaden the scope to a more general ‘diversity’ catchment. I know that this is the way policy is leading, directed from above by politicians, but it seriously worries me that specialist organisations will be weakened this way, and potentially at a time when their clientele will need them most.

The other event this week which I am proud of and certainly will be anything but coy about announcing is my delight and honour to be made DAC’s patron. It is my privilege to be a figurehead for this sterling organisation. I have been part of Disability Arts Cymru for twenty years, and my relationship with Maggie Hampton and Sara Beer goes back to 1986 when we all worked with Graeae Theatre Company, and were part of the Disability Civil Rights Movement. I hope I manage to serve them and the disabled and Deaf people in Wales and beyond, well.

Whilst we are on politics and the fight for civil rights, 陳佾均 Betty, the Taiwanese translator of my performance text ‘The 9 Fridas’ (whom I wrote about in my previous post) has been keeping me informed about the protests for democracy currently occurring in Taiwan. Our discussions began with reference to Frida Kahlo and her political commitment throughout her life – famously appearing in a wheelchair pushed by Diego Rivera, fist defiantly raised, placard in the other hand, less than a week before her death. We were discussing the necessity of finding parallels between the text and contemporary Taiwanese life, and so she broached the issue of the Sunflower Movement.

I was embarrassed and ashamed to tell her I had only the slightest knowledge of this massive civil rights campaign. There has been little coverage on UK radio and TV and after a cursory search I could only find one article in The Guardian online Comment is Free. Betty has sent me a few links, which I reproduce, below. Please look and read, and don’t be as uninformed as I was. Thank you

https://www.facebook.com/sunflowermovement

http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/journalists-obstructed-as-police-use-force-at-taiwan-student-demonstration

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/25/taiwans-protesters-democracy-china-taiwan-strait

20 Questions….. Rachel Gadsden

Continuing this strand of exploring process and creativity with a host of artists working across genres and form, with different practice and results… From novels to choreography, post dramatic texts to sculpture… I ask the same 20 questions to a series of artists, writers and makers, and they respond as they wish, ignoring some questions, enlarging on others, responding to queries about process and creativity. It is my hope over time this will create a fascinating cross-disciplinary archive.

It is my delight and privilege to introduce 20 Questions…. Rachel Gadsden.

Rachel Gadsden at work

Rachel Gadsden is a British visual artist, who has a BA and MA in Fine Art who works across mainstream and disability sectors. Her methodology is expressionistic, energetic, raw, motivated by the frail and human. In 1999 Gadsden exhibited at Dostoyevsky Museum. Wasteland was voted most popular painting in Hunting Competition 2003.  Awards include: Artsadmin Bursary 2004, Dada Visual Artist of the Year 2005, Shrewsbury International Painting Prize 2006, Holton Lee International Disability Arts Prize 2007, Momentum Arts Council/Dada-South Bursary and Dada International Arts Award 2009. Global Alchemy was commended in Freedom To Create 2011: Global Alchemy is now permanently exhibited in Mandela’s Walk To Freedom. Gadsden became the first contemporary artist-in-residence at Hampton Court Palace; and was the first artist for Parliamentary Outreach 2009 – 2010. Recent commissions: painting for the Beijing-London Paralympics Handover at Stoke Mandeville; Gadsden was lead artist for Starting Line, a major collaborative performance for the London 2012 Paralympic Torch Relay Festival. In 2011 Gadsden won an international Unlimited 2012 Cultural Olympiad commission, in collaboration with the Bambanani Group of Khayelitsha Township SA – Unlimited Global Alchemy, and in 2013 she represented UK as part of “Qatar – UK Year of Culture” for British Council and the first ever Art and Disability Festival in the Middle East, HRH Prince Charles and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall formally opened Gadsden’s solo exhibition This Breathing World at Katara Cultural Village, Doha.  Gadsden’s vision continues onwards with a forthcoming new role as Artist for Parliament in the Autumn 2013, a commission for this year’s Liberty Disability Arts Festival for the re opening of the Olympic Park in September, a commission for International Women’s Day in South Africa August 2013 and a collaboration with the Steve Biko Museum in Easter next year to name a few.

What first drew you to your particular practice (art/acting/writing, etc)?

Playing make believe games with my identical twin sister when we were very small children, my imagination was able to expand and developed

 What was your big breakthrough?

Personally: Realizing that if I just allowed my drawings to emerge they would.

Professionally – being selected and appointed to be the first contemporary artist in residence at Hampton Court Palace since the artist Holbein 400 years ago, also to be the first artist to be selected and appointed to be Artist for Parliamentary Outreach.

 What is the most challenging aspect of your work/process?

Juggling the creative process with the never-ending need to fulfill the administration that goes with a hectic artistic practice.

Is there a piece of art, or a book, or a play, which changed you?

Primo Levi ~ If this is a Man (book);  Goya’s Caprichos Drawings and late paintings; Mina Loy’s Poetry. 

What’s more important: form or content?

Always content

How do you know when a project is finished?

The project speaks to me and tells me to stop, I don’t decide.

 Do you read your reviews?

Yes

 What advice would you give a young writer/practitioner?

Work hard, and look outwards as well as inwards and keep feeding your imagination.

What work of art would you most like to own?

Any Goya late work or Ruben’s Massacre of the Innocents and a Rodin sculpture and a Michelangelo late drawing to name a few!

What’s the biggest myth about writing/the creative process?

That an artist or a creative person is somehow gifted.

 What are you working on now?

A performance commission for liberty Festival with Mark Brew called “Cube of Curiosity”; Performance collaboration for South Africa International Women’s Day in Cape Town, August 2013, with Director Mandla Mbowthe, Andille Vellem, Don Coyote called “Talking Souls”, I travel to SA in a week to start rehearsals. A major evolving commission for DadaFest 2014 that includes International Middle East collaboration, plus development for Unity 2014 with Disability Arts Cymru. And also a major fine art commission for UK Parliament Autumn 2013.  

What is the piece of art/novel/collection/ you wish you’d created?

Too many to name really I have a list of thousands of artwork, plays films, poetry that inspire me every day, but any of Michelangelo’s late drawings are probably on the top of the list.

What do you wish you’d known when you were starting out?

That some of the unbelievable opportunities that I have had would emerge.

What’s your greatest ambition?

That the next piece I make will be better than the last and that I live another day to be able to make that happen.

How do you tackle lack of confidence, doubt, or insecurity?

The insecurity I have now is related to my diminishing eye sight issues rather than insecurities relating to what I create, I have witnessed a growing energy and confidence that is over whelming as far as my creative practice is concerned, I just hope I can continue to create. I tackle this all with the very real notion that I have no option other than to keep making everything happen.

What is the worst thing anyone said/wrote about your work?

I rarely focus on the negative and at the moment I can’t think of anything horrid. I am forever humbled by the extraordinary support I have and do receive about my work.

 And the best thing?

“Gadsden is creating an artwork with frantic speed, fighting her own real-life fight against the dying of the light. In the act of painting, she tells us, she is “living in the second”. A profoundly affecting reminder of our shared humanity.”   Luke Jennings – Guardian/Observer

 If you were to create a conceit or metaphor about the creative process, what would it be?

Breathing to stay alive

 What is your philosophy or life motto?

Get on with it; life is short, and so very precious.

What is the single most important thing you’ve learned about the creative life?

It is my life.

 What is the answer to the question I should have – but didn’t – ask?

Desire is everything

  

For further information about Rachel’s work, plus links to websites, films etc, please go to:

www.rachelgadsden.com

www.unlimitedglobalalchemy.com

 Arts Council England Film (5mins) – Rachel Gadsden and her Unlimited Global Alchemy 2012 Cultural Olympiad International Commission

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfkmIUccJJ8

Arts Council England Film (5mins) The Creative Case for Diversity – Rachel Gadsden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKY4lJYpgZk

 Triumphant Return 3mins approx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lviKMxAKeU

 

 

Fflam Pwy? Whose Flame is it Anyway?

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Kaite O’Reilly leading a workshop at Disability Arts Cymru’s Skills Week with The Unusual Stage School, Summer 2011. Performer Sherrall Morris is to the right.

Disability Arts Cymru (DAC) have just made a video about their work supported by the Cultural Olympiad: Fflam Pwy? Whose Flame is it Anyway? 

This is a series of initiatives, projects and professional development opportunities for emerging writers, artists and actors, culminating in exhibitions, performances and publications in 2012.

Back in the summer, I was involved with the Skills Week for the Unusual Stage School, leading workshops alongside John McGrath (artistic director of National Theatre Wales), Ian Morgan, and Tara McAllister-Viel, amongst others. The Unusual Stage School was set up by DAC to offer experience and training for disabled and Deaf performers in Wales, where there is a dearth of opportunities in this field.

I am also editing a collection of creative writing by young and emerging disabled and Deaf writers, supported by a series of workshops led by professional writers across Wales. Reflections on writing, revision, and editing will appear, I’m sure, in future blogs.

Meanwhile, to view the video, please go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH1gzHKhh0Q&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL763C66703E24B3FB