Conversations / Future Selves

When ‘normal’ doesn’t work for so many, how can we creatively imagine what the future looks like together?

Conversations / Future Selves Website

When ‘normal’ doesn’t work for so many, how can we creatively imagine what the future looks like together?

6 newly commissioned online artworks by Aisling Gallagher & Calum Perrin, Sophia McLean, Joseph Powell-Main, Sophie Stone, Matthew Taylor and Tanya Raabe-Webber. 

This website intends to uplift the voices of D/deaf, neurodivergent and disabled practitioners - to create and hold a space for their voices to be heard. We are specifically speaking to those working in the arts and/or health sectors in Wales and if that’s you - we encourage you to listen, to watch and experience these artworks with their personal reflections on this very moment, and their hopes and anxieties for our future. Perhaps these works will prompt further potentialities in your work within the intersecting spaces of arts and health in Wales.

The artists were selected from an open call for D/deaf, neurodivergent and disabled artists to create short online artworks in response to their experience of the pandemic and hopes for the future. 

 

Aisling Gallagher & Calum Perrin’s audio piece explores how their sonic landscapes have changed during coronavirus, and imagining how they could change in the future.

Sophia McLean’s monologue examines a future, where ‘normal’ could be normal for everyone.

Joseph Powell-Main: In his dance piece ‘Ddraig’ Joe is interested in how both Carmen and the red dragon, a national symbol for Wales, embody strength and power which is impossible to ignore.

Sophie Stone’s film ‘Hiraeth’ explores a yearning for home and asks us how do we create a better version of ourselves when we emerge out the other side (into a post-pandemic world)? 

Matthew Taylor’s poetry reflects on what it will be like and how it will feel for a deaf person in a post lockdown world. His poem ‘The New Normal’ is layered onto beats, the beats creating a soundscape that reverberates feelings of fear and anxiety.

Tanya Raabe-Webber’s video work follows the process of painting a self-portrait. Filmed in a silent time lapse, Tanya reflects on an intense emotional sense of self. 
 

About:

Conversations / Future Selves is a project initiated by Theatre Maker & Access Consultant Jonny Cotsen, Curator & Producer Louise Hobson and Arts Development Manager Sarah Goodey (Gwent Arts in Health / Aneurin Bevan University Health Board) as part of the Y Lab / Arts Council Wales ‘HARP’ (Health, Arts, Research, People) innovation programme Sprint, which is looking at how the arts can support people living through lockdown and how access to arts interventions can be improved.

 

Further links:

Jonny Cotsen Website 

Louise Hobson Website

Sarah Goodey: Garth

Ylab Website

Arts Council of Wales Website