The People’s heART Exhibition at Massachusetts General Hospital
Thinking About Accessibility: Photograph of a shape of a girl’s profile embossed with the texture and pattern of a curb cut. The small and large bumps create the features of her face: her eyes, her lips. This piece beckons the question: what if spaces were accessible to everyone? It honors people who cannot reliably enter all spaces. Access is a constant question for many folks with disabilities. “Will I be able to? “How will I?” Will they have …?” run through the mind nonstop. It can be all consuming. In a society that routinely brushes those with disabilities to the margins, this piece brings their accessibility to the forefront.
Breathing In What’s Mine: A cacophony of colors, lines and glitter swirling in a woman’s head highlighting especially her hair. You can almost touch it. Lamont Price's description: A woman with a gorgeous afro unapologetically breathing in life. Why should she apologize? She’s merely taking back a small portion of what belongs to her. Of what she contributes. The afro automatically makes me think of women of color, specifically Black women who constantly give of themselves while routinely receiving precious little in return. The healthcare system has a sordid history of underperforming and, at times, outright dismissing the humanity of Black women. This includes the ominous mortality rates when giving birth. Often viewed as being able to sustain a great deal of pain to disastrous results. Treated as caricatures. Women with disabilities who are sterilized without consent after giving birth. These are aspects of our healthcare community that must change. Givers of life need not ask for permission to breathe in what is rightfully theirs. Their breaths are our breaths. Their comfort is our comfort. Their life breeds all our lives.
All of Me / Disability Joy Many silhouettes of Jessica in all her splendor. Dancing in her disability joy, where her body pleases her! The snow globeness of the bubble projecting her essence. Her disability is part of who she is and don’t you dare think less of her because of the way her body is. When Jessica gives a talk, she invites people to notice that she speaks and moves differently. Then she says, “If you thought, even for one moment, that I was less intelligent – let that thought go. Then notice my brilliance!” She will remind the audience that the height of the eugenics movement, Ugly Laws and regular institutionalization of people with disabilities are all a part of our nation’s recent past. We need to take a stand in our minds against the ableism that we have inherited, that is baked into this country’s legal, medical and educational systems as well as the economy.
Sitting on their Shoulders: Legacy…and What If: A photo of a stencil of a woman sitting in a wheelchair, in the stencil we see a shadow of her as if it is a part of her shirt. The wheelchair looks old fashioned. Jessica made this stencil from a photo of Reagan Linton ( actor, director, producer, writer) as she performs her show called FDR’s Drag Show. President Franklin D. Rosevelt had polio and often used a wheelchair. He privately made lots of room for his own disability and for people with disabilities, but publicly would not own it.There were reasons why he barred the press from mentioning his wheelchair. His mother told him as a child to hide his pain and discomfort to not bother his father and of course, there were Ugly Laws on the books… it was not mere vanity. But I think of the many leaders since who came after with disability and how things could have been different if he could have loudly and proudly claimed his access needs.
Just Skin: A stencil of Jessica standing in profile with hands stretched out above her head as if she is in second position for ballet, feet wide, arms making a circle above her head. Here the stencil is placed over Jessica, her skin acting as the silhouette.
Sustained by Water: A photo of the neurodivergent symbol. This symbol is the profile of a person highlighting the brain. Inside the brain is moving water with small bubbles.
I’m coming out…I want the world to know that….A colorful bubble with the blind/low vision symbol of a person with a cane superimposed on it. The legs and cane are elongated because of the concaveness of the bubble. We all have places we are going and once you know access is a right, secured and not a question, we can take on our purpose, come out in confidence, be determined or switch our focus of our determination from safety and accessibility to where we are going and what we want to do when we get there…Where would you go if accessibility and safety were not in question?
In Constant Motion: Away We Go: The new accessibility symbols sports a yellow background. The lines, colors and texture from an underlying Afghan rug draw the person racing in his wheelchair. From wondering to the realizing what is possible if accessibility exists…accessibility does not mean easily, just knowingly possible.
Reinforce the message in every space.
The Body is Good photography is available as archival prints and mounted, ready-to-hang reproductions.
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Ready to frame, high quality archival prints in any size and finish.
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Acrylic Prints are stunning quality prints face-mounted to non-glare plexiglass with optically clear adhesive and have a DiBond backing for a sturdy, substantial display.
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Stunning prints on aluminum in standard and custom sizes up to 4x8', with ready to hang float mounts. Select from Floating mounts or Stick-and-Switch.