By Renee Wood
The YAVA Out and About program at the Warburton Arts Centre has its newest instalment courtesy of Warburton artist and photographer Paul Stoney.
The exhibit will explore the representation of disability and power both photographically and through discussion.
Paul has always been interested in the topics and how people with disability are portrayed.
“There are so many famous, iconic photographs that misrepresent the subject and completely take away power from it,” Paul said.
“Mixed in with that is my entire life, the way I saw disability portrayed and being I guess, inverted commas a disabled person, which I never really considered myself to be, was very rarely matched with what you saw portrayed in the media.”
Paul’s leg was amputated in 1985 due to osteosarcoma, bone cancer, and Paul has taken a series of self-portraits to share his life with the audience.
The exhibit named Mirror aims to highlight the power he has over his own identity and to better educate and reflect on the representation of people with disability.
“You look in the mirror… what do you see back? … How does the world actually see you as a person? As a person with a disability?” he said.
Although we may now be more inclusive and understanding to all, there are still many things everyone can learn to see someone as a person first before a disability.
Paul relates this to his own personal experience in the past when phantom pain, something that’s felt by people who’ve lost a limb, wasn’t taken seriously within the medical profession.
Now, there are research projects and medical investigations to better understand the condition.
“There’s a picture of me in the middle of one of those really nasty episodes… because a whole lot of things in your nervous system change and so they actually start transmitting pain messages that are real messages, but false.
“….but that wasn’t believed. It was generally thought that you were either looking to get drugs, or you had some sort of psychological problem.”
The sharing of stories and open discussion will also be a key part of the centre collaboration, with ‘Open Mind Conversations’ events taking place throughout July to allow the attendees and panel guests to open up about living with a disability.
The overall collaboration has been addressed with sensitivity to ensure mental wellbeing support, while also providing further attention if any sense of trauma is uncovered.
Ethne Pfeiffer from Food Patch Art has worked with Paul and Amanda May Yarra Ranges Council Disability Inclusion Officer to deliver documents with information and services which will be available during the exhibit.
“There’s a whole raft of ways that people can experience disability… and the severity would be varying, but around that comes a huge amount of trauma,” Ethne Pfeiffer said.
“Because of the whole trauma aspect that comes with disability, we wanted to be really mindful that people have respectful conversations, and that we’re as trauma informed as we can be, and that we can really show duty of care.”
“The more you share stories and break down the stigma about disability – the better – so and I think art is such a powerful medium for that,” Amanda May said.
The exhibit launches on Saturday 9 July with bookings available through https://www.yava.org.au/acw-paulxstoney
Open Mind Conversations bookings are available via https://www.yava.org.au/paulxstoney-store/openmind-conversations
