it's wonderful to be here to talk about
my journey to talk about the wheelchair
and the freedom it has bought me I
started using a wheelchair 16 years ago
when an extended illness changed the way
I could access the world when I started
using the wheelchair it was a tremendous
new freedom I'd seen my life slip away
and become restricted it was like having
an enormous new toy I could whizz around
and feel the wind in my face again just
being out on the streets was
exhilarating but even though I had this
newfound joy and freedom people's
reaction completely changed towards me
It was as if they couldn't see me
anymore as if an invisibility cloak had
descended they seemed to see me in terms
of their assumptions of what it must be
like to be in a wheelchair when I asked
people their associations with the
wheelchair they used words like
limitation fear pity and restriction I
realized idly turn alized these
responses and it changed who I was on a
core level a part of me had become
alienated from myself I was seeing
myself not from my perspective but
vividly and continuously from the
perspective of other people's responses
to me as a result I knew I needed to
make my own stories about this
experience new narratives to reclaim my
identity I started making work that
aimed communicate something of the joy
and freedom I felt when using a
wheelchair a power chair power chair to
negotiate the world
I was working to transform these
internalized responses
to transform the preconceptions that had
so I shaped my identity when I started
using a wheelchair by creating
unexpected images the wheelchair became
an object to paint and play with when I
literally started leaving traces of my
joy in freedom it was exciting to see
the interested and surprised responses
from people it seemed to open up new
perspectives and therein lay the
paradigm shift it showed that an arts
practice can remake one's identity and
transform preconceptions by revision
affirmed ealier so when I began to dive
in 2005 I realized scuba gear extends
your range of activity in just the same
way as a wheelchair does but the
association's attached to scuba gear are
ones of excitement and adventure
completely different people's responses
to the wheelchair so I thought I wonder
what will happen if I put the two
together and the underwater wheelchair
that has resulted has taken me on the
most amazing journey over the last seven
years so to give you an idea of what
that's like I'd like to share with you
one of the outcomes from creating the
spectacle and show you what an amazing
journey it's taken me on
it is the most amazing experience beyond
most other things I've experienced in
life
I literally have the freedom to move in
360 degrees of space and an ecstatic
experience of joy and freedom and the
incredibly unexpected thing is that
other people seem to see and feel that
to their eyes literally lies herb and
mace these things like I want one of
those or if you can do that I can do
anything and I'm thinking it's because
in that moment of them seeing an object
they have no frame of reference for so
transcends the frames of reference they
have with the wheelchair they have to
think in a completely new way and I
think that moment of completely new
thought perhaps creates a freedom that
spreads to the rest of other people's
lives for me this means that they're
seeing the value of difference the joy
it brings when instead of focusing on
loss or limitation we see and discover
the power and joy of seeing the world
from exciting new perspectives for me
the wheelchair becomes a vehicle for
transformation in fact I now call the
underwater wheelchair portal because
it's literally pushed me through into a
new way of being into new dimensions and
into a new level of consciousness and
the other thing is that because nobody's
seen or heard of an underwater
wheelchair before and creating the
spectacle is about creating new ways of
seeing being and knowing now you have
this concept in your mind you're all
part of the artwork to
you