Pages from a re/claimed book

STATEMENT/ABSTRACT

‘Faulty Wiring’, ‘Brainwaves Kaleidoscope’ and ‘Words…More Beautiful’ are pages taken from an altered book project in which I explore questions about how the experience of learning disability is portrayed and replicated. Using a famous 1961 neurological disorders textbook, I first journaled the book, over-writing my thoughts, memories and reactions over the clinical text. Next I used a variety of media to make new imagery; stripping, painting, collaging these pages created fresh ideas of learning disability that exist alongside and over those originally portrayed in the book.

This project comes from a deep appreciation of books. Many people would be surprised how much I value books if they knew about my learning disability. The learning disabled have a long history of being stereotyped as unintelligent and mentally deficient—not usually qualities associated with a bookworm. However, the negative stereotype also does not fully fit my experiences either. I am more than this simplistic image portrayed by the media and history and I know my family and learning disabled peers are too. My art was born from frustration and lack of identification with these reductive stereotypes. I wanted a way to expand representations of this experience in a way that would be scholarly as well as accessible and engaging. So wanting to know more, it was natural for me to turn first to books—although perhaps not in the traditional manner.

Altering books is a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original state into something different. Just as this 1961 neurological textbook represents knowledge and its traditional vehicle of scholarship, building collages on its pages changes the meanings of what others say we should be—numbers, clinical definitions, case studies, deviations from norms and neurological disorders—and makes it into something new. For me, altering this with biographical images becomes a powerful metaphor to highlight the ability in learning disability: I have the ability to insert myself into scholarship in unique ways, as well as, to actively refute overly simplified, binary stereotypes of being learning disabled.

KEYWORDS:

• learning disability
• mixed-media
• representation