‘These articles of clothing were made, some altered, to mask children’s ‘difference’, but also to assist them with their particular physical challenges. These items were difficult to source and not readily available. Another cover-up in the world of disability. The T-shirts belonged to Nikki when he was a toddler and mark my first encounter with social intolerance. He used to dribble noticeably and gradually the stains worsened on his shirts. One of his early speech therapists used to wipe his mouth repeatedly while she worked with him. I found this unfamiliar and confusing. I was not sure what my role was as a mother with non-family members, apologise, wipe or leave alone? My mother made some brightly coloured shirts with disguised bibs stitched underneath. This was an extraordinary act of love and highlighted the reality of the situation, he wore them a lot and they served a purpose. He grew out of them and I forgot about them - but I kept them and never passed them onto to anyone (as is the norm with parenting). Some years later I discovered other articles of clothing adapted by mothers specifically for their children - subtle cover-ups of their children’s physical struggles - in an attempt to seek a form of acceptance. For me, these items of clothing symbolise acts of extraordinary - albeit unacknowledged - compassion. I have represented these articles of clothing in a way that celebrates their uniqueness. And rather than represent them as items that attest to difference, otherness, perhaps even shame, I felt they deserved a different approach, perhaps even a glamorous one. I was mindful of the consumerist notions of idyllic childhood promised by Pampers Nappies and Woolworths advertising which are disrupted by the disclosure of disability. The title of the work is from the biographical writings of a 11 yr old cerebral palsied child, Luke Osborne.

Stickytape Juice Collection 2002
Duratrans prints, light display case, acrylic
Edition of 3
955 x 800mm

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