‘Epitaph’ is a body of work that seeks to visualise the experience of the neurodivergent artist in various stages of her childhood/teenage years as well as resonating with other neurodivergent/disabled people and their experiences of growing up in a world that wasn’t made for them.

 

Making use of stills that recreate key memories, past special interests and safe places, as well as a wide range of repurposed archival images, the artist seeks to not only mourn experiences and friendships she missed out on but accept that the past cannot be rewritten, coming to terms with her neurodiverse mind and growing to accept herself as she is.

 

In addition, the work also iterates how the people surrounding a child can deeply influence them, both positively and negatively. There is a stark contrast within ‘Epitaph’ between a comfortable, safe and understanding family life at home juxtaposed by a cruel school experience at the hands of school bullies, including bullying behaviour from some of the teachers themselves. The desperation to fit in, attempts to socially ‘mask’ and failure to do so is prevalent.

Despite its name, this project is intended as a prelude of sorts to the artist’s previous body of work, ‘One Man Cult’ which earned the 2022 Graduate award from University of Atypical.