Exhibition Launch!
Opening at The Horton Arts Centre on 3 September (until 25 September) is Us & Them, an exhibition of photography and film challenging how people with disabilities have been portrayed over time.
Bringing together photography found in 19th and early 20th century asylum records with contemporary photographic portraits of disabled artists – co-created using the same historic technique - the exhibition explores representation and asks: what has changed? What has stayed the same? And what, if any, is the difference between then and now, ‘us and them’?
The exhibition is the culmination of a two-year project, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and led by Freewheelers Theatre & Media, a diverse and creative company of people with disabilities based in Surrey.
Also based in Surrey is the most comprehensive archive of disability and mental health records in the English speaking world – a legacy of the high concentration of asylums built in the county during the 19th and early 20th centuries when London’s population boomed. Significantly, the exhibition opens at The Horton in Epsom, Surrey – which is now an arts and heritage centre but was formerly the Chapel for the Horton Asylum.
Us & Them began with research sessions at Surrey History Centre, guided by Professor of Modern History at King’s College London, Professor Alana Harris. In these sessions, Freewheelers’ artists explored historic case books and photography that form part of the archive, reflecting on how people with disabilities and mental health issues were treated in the past compared with today, why their photographs were taken, and whether the subjects had any influence on how they were portrayed.
Next, the artists learned about early photography and, working with photographer Emma Brown, they co-created their own portraits, using the wet collodion process - the same technique behind the historic case book photography. Contrasting with the Victorian and Edwardian sitters, the Freewheelers directed how they wished to be seen, choosing their pose, expression, dress and props, and then with Emma they developed their plates to produce their images.
Having created their portraits, the artists returned to the asylum photography, each choosing one image to display alongside their own, with an explanation from each artist about how they created their portrait and their reasons for selecting their historical partner image. The Freewheelers were drawn to commonality: shared interests, similar features and relatable characteristics between ‘us and them’.
Now, this photography will be presented in a pioneering exhibition that also features a short film about the project by award-winning filmmaker, Stefan Pollak, whose practice draws on his own lived experiences as a filmmaker with a disability, and audio recordings made by oral history and community archive specialists, On the Record, ensuring the voices that contribute to the wider context of this story, such as ex-nurses and family members of historical patients, are heard.