Caught! Or, an unfortunate narrative told from a heart between two wheels

Recently, (as in two months ago), I was the extremely lucky person who got to display her artwork at the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames. It was on display for two weeks, and I have been bugged by my friends who didn't get to see it (actually, just one person) to put up photographs of it on facebook. I figured my blog might be a more appropriate place.

You are looking at a 36 feet wide mural made of black and white paper. It is rather violent (just warning you).

My artist's statement is below...

Caught! Or, an unfortunate narrative told from a heart between two wheels

Hannah Soyer

           

This piece was inspired by the artwork of Kara Walker, a contemporary African American artist who works with silhouettes and black paper.  Her work deals with African American females and the exploitation of them by society, whether in the past or present. Because she herself is an African American, she is able to create some very emotionally charged and violent work without being questioned too harshly. Incidentally, I chose to work with the same style, format, and materials, but in regards to females with disabilities. Like Kara Walker, I think I was able to “get away” with this work because I myself have a disability.

All of the images shown in my piece represent horrors realistic of having a disability and being a female. Some of these I have experienced myself, others my friends have gone through. Some are merely reflective of facts and statistics, like how disabled children are 3.8 times more likely to be physically abused, 3.1 times more likely to be sexually abused, and 3.9 times more likely to be emotionally abused than their non-disabled peers.

The overwhelming idea expressed in Caught! is death, which I believe to be something everyone struggles with, no less so if you learn to face the idea of your own mortality every day.  When I was a freshman in high school, a friend of mine passed away due to complications with her own disease, a form of my own. The knowledge that death is always lurking is both terrifying and liberating at the same time. Terrifying, because you realize that nothing can ever be taken for granted, and liberating, because you suddenly have permission to live and be yourself.

I don’t pretend to have included all the horrors females with disabilities have gone through in this piece, and I certainly don’t pretend to know everything about the ones I have expressed. I only know what I myself have experienced. I call this piece Caught! because it is, in a sense, a frozen piece of time, an instant where so many crimes and evils are about to be committed. You, the viewer, have arrived, and not a moment too soon.