artitudes

Deborah Koenker

a mixed media installation, consisting of a wall and curtain painted blood red. To the left of the curtain, a large black and white portrait of a female contortionist; to the right, a round mirror that shows a distorted image. All is Aberration
mixed media

VIEWER, LOOK in the mirror: your image distorted (what is normal, the norm, normative?), the whole world distorted (with disability we navigate this world). red, colour of blood (a hundred blood tests). mirrors reflect appearances: go deeper.

VIEWER, REFLECT on aberration: a heavenly body (a societal obsession, also a planet) gone awry? a metaphor for the world generally?

VIEWER, IMAGINE: take your body, assume a contorted position. okay, now smile...it makes society more comfortable if you do. chronic, invisible pain.

VIEWER, TRY IT: sound each vowel, howl it, scream it.

VIEWER, DON'T judge by appearances ('you look fine')

VIEWER, TRANSCEND habitual responses.

artitudes

Deborah Koenker

Billy Dan Koskas