Creative Action for Everyone
“The Creability Movement” is a celebration of the diverse creative talents of Southeast Asia (SEA), highlighting artists of different abilities. As an artistic and advocacy movement, this program promotes the works of disabled artists in creative partnerships.
Now Is A
Featured Artists
Mary Bernadette x Tamimi Pohan
Art for Mary is a healing tool, and through her research and ground work with Tamimi Pohan, an examination of the mental, emotional and physical inter- relations of disability will be presented. Tamimi Pohan was born with a genetic disorder of the bones, scientifically known as Osteogenesis Imperfecta or commonly, brittle bone disease. A young artist, avid gamer and TV-watcher, Tamimi’s drawings are often of imaginary adventures he takes with blue-haired character and friend, Chip.
Using transparent acrylic sheets, their work plays with darkness and shadow, throwing light on how society often looks through a person with disabilities. The artwork will be installed by Mary Bernadette on-site and is collectively a concept born out of her response to how Tamimi is seen by society, along with her capture of what the artist would like viewers to notice about her co-artist and his vivid mind.
koloWn x San Remigo Central School for the Deaf
koloWn, an anonymous producer of work, created an interactive conceptual prototype for the exhibition through which they hope to open up conversations and solutions for the integration of the deaf in an enabled society. A sound reactive piece hosted on a LCD screen and powered by the Internet through a computer, the piece is his response to interacting with and observing four deaf students whom he met through a SPED (Special Education) programme in Cebu. To interact with the piece, visitors will create sounds either by their own bodily actions such as clapping, or by the tools provided (such as musical instruments or horns, for example). By picking up different frequencies of sounds, the artwork will react with various colours and patterns.
It is koloWn’s hope that in a society where there is no medical cure for certain chemical imbalances in the body, technology can provide solutions and bring balance. This artwork is a prototype placed in the exhibition for research, testing and response, and the hope is that in the future, the concept can be applied to wearable tools such as glasses for deaf motorcyclists.
The Sliz x Kelvin Cheah
Sliz is an artist with a background in graffiti and architecture, with a keen interest in place-making within public spaces. He is collaborating with Kelvin, an active and chirpy kid who also has congenital malformation in his limbs. Through his interactions with Kelvin, the artist has become interested in the way our bodies develop, with special attention to the importance of play. Observing Kelvin at play in the playground, arcade and on mobile, Sliz is in the process of deconstructing the way society accommodates (or does not accommodate) the physically disabled, especially children.
Sliz built a modular structure of a playground using wood planks. It is Sliz’s way of reflecting on the impact 2D and 3D games have on children, especially in an advanced graphic environment where mobile games can be 3D too. For both enabled and disabled visitors, the message the installation sends out is to merely remind one of the importance of physical actions such as grabbing, pulling, holding and climbing.
Kabul x Loster
Kabul typically works on canvas and paper, often implying techniques of cyanotype printing and traces of found objects. Kabul will be collaborating with a schizophrenia patient. The artist will primarily address the process of treatment associated with disability. The artist is encouraged to explore the phenomenon of treatment in an Asian context. Treatment, in this context, is understood as a process that comes chronologically after being diagnosed with a disability. Treatment may be met with hesitance, resentment and a bout of other miscellaneous human emotions, and their responses to treatment may differ. Kabul is trying to champion the idea of collaboration through his work, getting the abled and disabled to see the light in working in the same space together, human to human. He will be presenting collaborative paintings in the show.
