Adapting to a disability: a practical approach to Focal Dystonia

This Exegesis considers my artistic adaption and response to the neurological condition that I suffer from, called Focal Dystonia. The Exegesis develops a series of evolving visualizing techniques that incorporate very specific personal symbols that consequently appear as my sculptures, paintings and drawings. The examination of my practice is divided into three modes of response. Firstly, I discuss the emotional role that mourning plays after the arrival of a mid-career disability; its relationship to myself as the Drawer and how this in turn aligns itself with certain emerging symbols. Secondly, I utilize the spectral image of the classical ruin to introduce the notion of my 'body as ruin' and how this aligns with the separated stones and sticks of its structure. Finally, the notion of a Foundation is investigated in relation to the rebuilding of the ruin using the aforementioned stones and sticks. This final section also investigates the charged idea of negative, functional space that originates in the writings of the Tao Teh Ching. I am primarily concerned with the adaption of my art to the evolving structures that are demanded of me within the constraints of Focal Dystonia. Therefore I am very much the central character from which the formal symbols of healing within my practice arise. Within this exegesis I am attempting to create and explain visual and visualizing structures that assist in healing myself of this condition.