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About the artwork
Listen to the artist statement for Self Portrait
This work expresses the emotional and physical demands of disability and how embracing the emotional roller coaster of life, one can have an exceptional life. A life worth living. This work explores themes of darkness and light, the emotional toll living a best life has on body and mind. It explores the circumstance and behaviours of the outside world and how this intersects with the reality of “personhood”.
The work encompasses the strength and inner fortitude that a person with disability uses to endure and thrive, whist hiding the pain from the outside world. It examines the societal reality of infantilisation of people with disabilities and how, we (PWD) are forced by society to smile even though we suffer discrimination and abuse at rates higher than all the other groups of marginalised people put together. Society compelled us to be “cheerful and Live out best lives” but will not support this with inclusion and equity. I push back against this and show that a smile is just a “frown upside down” and this work show the cost.
About the artist - Tammy Milne
I am a woman with a physical disability; I have had this disability since birth. I am a wheelchair user. I am also a mother, a widow, and an educator and advocate. Art brings me joy. My style is playful and naive. I use a range of mediums to explore my surroundings and capture the things I love. My life is what I make it, and I endeavour every day to make it worthwhile. I moved from the NW coast to Hobart 3 years ago.