Michelle Vine

swollen limbs
unstable joints
unsteady in
facing what must be endured
still
standing
trying not to yield

I’m interested in how mass-produced, easily discarded domestic forms, such as an IKEA stool or a dining chair picked up at roadside collection, can become vehicles for the public expression of what is more often a very private experience what it is to live with chronic illness and disability. We expect bodies to look and behaviour in certain ways, akin to our assumptions of how ubiquitous manufactured furniture will function. In these works I push familiar designed objects to reflect bodies that deviate from norms and expectations of bodily function, as I hold space for the narrative and poetic possibilities of what emerges out of play. As a disabled artist, I'm experimenting with new ways of expressing my experiences of mobility loss, and the vulnerability and intimacy of my changing relationship with my own body. Central to this is both a desire, and a need, to experiment with physical media and methods of making, in ways that honour and respect my body and its capabilities and limits on any given day in the studio.