Spare Parts and Strangely Familiar

Overview

Both Spare Parts and Strangely Familiar discuss the issue of disability in Australia. One provides a light hearted outlet for artists to create awareness; another provides a look at the skewed perception of disability in the media. Both are sure to be fascinating exhibitions.

Spare Parts is a project created by Priscilla Sutton, an amputee who decided to turn her unused prosthetics into art pieces. Her idea has taken off, with numerous exhibitions in Brisbane and overseas, with works by many artists using prostheses as canvases. The sale of these unique pieces will go to COPE, an organisation that provides prosthetics and orthotics to those disabled by munitions.

The artists on display this year are, Anke Catesby, barek, Bec Peart and Martin Pedder of Blackbird’s Emporium, Benjamin Werner, Clarissa Bones for Raw Bones, Elisa Jane Carmichael, Erica Gray, Josh Rufford, Kerri Hobba, and Rachael Waith.

Strangely Familiar takes a microscope to the perception of disability in the media, and provides a photographic portrayal of the unseen side of the ’differently-abled’.

Created by Louis Lim, Strangely Familiar reveals the stories of those affected by disability, not as objects of pity or heroic idols, but rather ordinary people with their own stories of ‘love, belonging and identity.’

Both exhibitions will be on display until the 15^th of September.