Mymona Bibi visited Bordered Belonging, an exhibition and programme developed with writer, maker & social-tech activist Bhavani Esapathi at The NewBridge Project. She chats to Project Manager, Izzy Finch about how the project came about and what it takes to make a gallery space more accessible.
Mymona Bibi [MB]: Where, and how, was the idea for Bordered Belonging born?
Izzy Finch [IF]: Bhavani (Esapathi) was part of our programme committee, which is a paid opportunity for people as a strand of our artist development for people who are interested in developing exhibitions and public programmes at NewBridge. It is not necessarily always for artists or people who already have a practice, it can be for people who have an idea or a theme that they are looking to research or develop within a year’s time frame.
The theme of Bordered Belonging is very much rooted in personal journeys and personal experiences. Bhavani is a migrant, disabled woman. The barriers to accessing health care and the parameters that she found herself in politically led her to become very invested in raising awareness about migrants’ rights and access to healthcare.
MB: How do you think everyday activities, routines and care work can be barriers to creativity? And could they instead be sort of vessels or roots towards creativity?
IF: It’s so interesting that you say that because I believe that art can be a powerful tool to tell people’s stories and to begin building a sense of solidarity. Within my role at NewBridge I also manage Topsoil, a queer gardening project and Create/Disrupt, an artist development strand for people who have not been to university. Although I cannot speak personally to the barriers faced by disabled artists, I try to frame all the projects I am involved in through an intersectional lens, meaning that we understand that historically marginalised communities face multiple inequalities and that these oppressions cannot be seen as mutually exclusive.
Working on Bordered Belonging has been an important reminder for us that art spaces are not always accessible for historically marginalised people and specifically disabled artists who are working on “crip time”. At NewBridge we are constantly learning by being in dialogue with local artists such as gobscure and Lady Kitt as well as all the artists in the exhibition.
There was a deliberate decision to give all the artworks a lot of space in the gallery and we thought about what access means in the broadest context. We have clear access points to all artworks and the bookshelves are all accessible for wheelchair users. There are also multiple places to rest within the gallery. I didn’t want the space to feel clustered or overcrowded, I wanted it to encourage rest and reflection.
MB: With spoon theory in mind, can you tell me about how the exhibition discusses and explores ideas around things like energy and output?
IF: In Jamila Prowse’s moving image work ‘Spoons (After Carolyn Lazard)’ 2023, we hear the voices of Jamila, Leah Clements, Carolyn Lazard and Bella Milroy reflecting on their personal relationships to Spoon Theory, highlighting the disparity in energy reserves between those that are disabled and those that are not.
All of the artworks in Bordered Belonging address personal and complex relationships to care. As Carolyn Lazard says in Jamila’s film, “it feels so wild that care work is so undervalued and yet it’s the thing that allows for us to do just about anything. It is very much the thing that is the foundation and support of creative work, creative labour. So yeah, I am in this weird relationship with care here.” The show also includes a film called ‘SickBed’, 2018, by Leah Clements which situates the viewer in bed with an unknown illness and the poem ‘I Wish to Be Held By A River’, 2023, by activist and artist Jamie Hale. The poem was hand painted on our gallery wall by local artist Zach McDade (also known as Start Today).
I believe that we must interrogate where our knowledge is coming from and platform diverse voices from historically underrepresented communities. We will never have a complete toolkit when we are talking about access and care, it will always need to change and develop but by adopting an intersectional feminist lens, we can begin to be responsive, adaptive and make meaningful change.
Mymona Bibi is a writer based in Newcastle.
Bordered Belonging is at The NewBridge Project from 3 February until 30 March 2024.
This article is supported by The NewBridge Project.
Published 18.03.2024 by Lesley Guy in Interview
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