The Seated Artist

Dear Reader,

Following on with the theme of my empty wheelchair, and the success of the Now you see me, now you don’t installation, I decided to experiment further with wheelchair sculpture.  I want to explore how I can change the narrative of my chair (a found object), turning it from an aid into art.

I have recently begun to view my wheelchair as a piece of art in its own right; I have always relied on it to transport me and give me independence; despite this I’ve always held mixed emotions towards it.  I am grateful for the support that it gives but I am resentful at how it alters my identity.  After further analysis and self-reflection, I have come to view my wheelchair in a new light; I now see it for its materiality. Stripping it back to its basic components of rubber, plastic, metal and foam, these materials make a sculpture that modifies my identity and societal views. It is an artwork.

I decided to make another 3D print of my wheelchair, continuing with the idea of Conceal to Reveal; this time I covered the entirety of my chair with fabric.  Although, the initial plan was to cut the material and tie it around individual parts of my chair, I was influenced by the Venus de Milo that I had been researching for my dissertation and instead decided to drape the fabric.  This proved to be a better decision as it added to the grandeur and elegance, elevating my chair into something monumental.  It was also physically raised up on a table which forced the viewer to look up at it, adding to its stature and sense of importance.

To hold the drapery in place and define certain features of my chair, I and my study support assistant tied off areas with string and pinned others into place.  By doing this, we concealed my disability aid and partially revealed it, leaving a trace of what once was and room for the viewers imagination to fill in the gaps; it went from functional to fabulous.

Dear Reader

I recently had a workshop about printing with a Risograph machine. In the print room at the university, my first-year tutor talked through the process and showed us some examples of Risograph prints; he then gave us a demonstration.

A Risograph is a bit like a screen print but instead of preparing it manually and using a squeegee, the printer does all the hard work.  The machine itself looks like a photocopier.  Despite the university having four different colour drums (black, yellow, pink, and blue), the Risograph printer can only hold two at a time, this means that you can only print with two colours at once.

To print with this machine, you must first make one image for each colour layer.  The image needs to be in monochrome so that it is sharp enough for the Risograph to make a stencil; greyscale can be achieved digitally.

Due to much of my recent work being digital, I welcomed the chance to draw and be creative in a more traditional way.  I set about drawing my wheelchair using a Sharpie and leaving no room for error; I found this quite liberating as it forced me to accept any imperfections.  I was pleased with the result.  As I liked my wheelchair illustration so much, I decided that I didn’t want to overcomplicate the result, so for my second image I just prepared a background shape which helped to frame my initial drawing.

I am happy that I had a go at this, as the outcome was a success (see photo).  The conventional silk screen printing process has always been challenging for me due to my shoulders dislocating easily, making pulling a squeegee dangerous to do; however, the Risograph takes away the physical strain of printing and means I can still be creative but in a safer way.

Doing this workshop has opened new possibilities for me and I look forward to using this medium again.