All Facing in the Same Direction
A film about diagnosis, self-governance, language and movement. Made in collaboration with 16 incredible neurodivergent participants who shared their reflections with me.
Biggest thanks to Victoria Louise Doyle, Sal Harris, J Neve Harrington, Evan Ifekoya and Andre-Alex Kamienski who engaged in ongoing video exchanges with me. The video also features one-off monologues submitted by Lucy Barker, Jennifer Doveton, Nick Fitzgerald, Tara Johnston-Comerford, Johanna Koen, Ant Lightfoot, Catrin Osborne, Emma Plover, Maisie Pritchard, Millie Sheppard and Geraldine Snell.
Made with support from Hannah Keville, Christine Borland, Christian Wright, Saya Naruse, Craig Pollard, Frances Stacey and Bryony Rae Taylor. I am also hugely indebted to Cherry Styles for helping me develop the video voice note format.
The subtitle font is Inconstant Regular, designed by Daniel Brokstad.
Funded by a National Lottery Project Grant from Arts Council England, and additional support from Northumbria University. Several of my solo performances to camera were filmed at Cove Park.
The film premiered at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art as part of Nominally Sovereign on Wed 26 July, 2023.
Images of the event by Saya Naruse
Nominally Sovereign
Wednesday 26 July, 2023 - 10am - 4.30pm
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, GATESHEAD
nominally = in name only; officially though perhaps not in reality
sovereign = possessing supreme or ultimate power
How does the language we learn to use to describe ourselves influence our experience of the world?
Nominally Sovereign explored how diagnosis around neurodivergence (whether ‘official’ or self-identified) helps and/or complicates the process of self-actualisation, thinking what the word ‘sovereignty’ might offer us in contemplating this. Organised by local artist Grace Denton, the day was intended as an accessible forum to share our experiences, knowledge and frustrations.
The day included a screening of Grace’s film All Facing in the Same Direction, created in collaboration with neurodivergent artists; a session with artists Sofia Barton, Sarah Li and Dan Russell representing kin collective; a talk by Martin Swan and Kate Adams from Project Art Works, a collective of neurodiverse artists and activists; and a discussion facilitated and led by Ciara Lenihan, an artist in printmaking, sculptural installation, video and performance.
This event forms part of a wider project that Grace is working on, which states the case for a community of neurodiverse artists in the North East. As such, the event was aimed at artists who might not know they’re neurodivergent, and neurodivergent people who might not know they’re artists.
We are using the word neurodivergent to refer to anyone who falls outside of the expectation of ‘neurotypical’. This could include, but is not limited to, those who identify with Autism, ADHD, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia and Tourettes. Any participants with a curiosity or kinship with the themes of the event are, of course, welcome.
This work has been made possible by an Arts Council England Project Grant, additional support from BALTIC and the BxNU Institute, and is delivered with production and curation support from Frances Stacey and Bryony Rae Taylor.
THE SPACE
The event took place on Level 1 of the BALTIC, which is quite a large space. There were lots of seating options around including bean bags, chairs, and/or soft flooring so people could make themselves at home and move around as they wished.
The event included five pink and blue bean bags created by Jenny Alderson and Rachael Eden for the occasion, and six yellow beanbags which were made for Sonic Signals (2023) a project by Abbas Zahedi, Chandos Primary School and Eastside Projects.
There was a zine-making and craft table in the space led by artist and small press publisher Cherry Styles. Anyone who made paper-based work in response to the day had the option to put their work forward to be included in a zine that will document the event.
Saya Naruse was present on the day to sensitively capture some photos of the event.
Contributors
Grace Denton is an artist and writer who has lived and worked in the North East for seven years, and received an ADHD diagnosis in 2019. She took a long route into the art world, and into understanding her own neurodiversity. You can find out more about her work on her website. This event intersects with her PhD research currently being undertaken at Northumbria University, currently titled The nominally sovereign body: A practice-based exploration of the language of self-governance through the prism of ADHD.
Her new film All Facing in the Same Direction includes self-filmed video contributions from Lucy Barker, Jennifer Doveton, Victoria Louise Doyle, Nick Fitzgerald, Sal Harris, J Neve Harrington, Evan Ifekoya, Tara Johnston-Comerford, Andre-Alex Kamienski, Johanna Koen, Ant Lightfoot, Emma Plover, Maisie Pritchard, Millie Sheppard and Geraldine Snell. It has also been made with technical support from Saya Naruse, Craig Pollard and Christian Wright.
Project Art Works are a collective based in Hastings. They collaborate with people with complex support needs, families and circles of support. Their practice intersects art and care, responding to neurodivergence, its gifts and impacts. Challenging paradigms of inclusion, it spans direct practical and holistic support, film, events, projects and exhibitions. They recently announced a major new collaboration and exhibition with BALTIC as part of their EXPLORERS programme. Kate Adams, their CEO/Artist Director joined us online. In person Martin Swan, their Off-Site Programme Manager and an electronic musician, helped support the talk and screening.
www.projectartworks.org @projectartworks @explorers__project
kin collective are a group of artists in the North East of England. They are ignited and galvanised by making the world a fairer, more accessible and less climate disastrous place through collaboration, creativity, protest and parties. Sofia Barton is a cultural activist and multidisciplinary artist who creates contemporary artwork inspired by nature and her Punjabi heritage, Sarah Li is a Queer interdisciplinary artist and musician and a founding member of the DGA Collective, and Lady Kitt is a disabled artist and drag king, describing their work as “Mess Making as Social Glue”. (Unfortunately Lady Kitt had to pull out due to illness, and was replaced by Dan Russell, an excellent human and artist.)
Ciara Lenihan is an artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne working with printmaking, sculptural installation, video and performance. “My mouth finds many tongues which are fit for different purposes; activism, story telling, transformation and trauma. The tongues in my mouth are Irish, English and Body. My mouth simultaneously spits out these tongues and gobbles them up.”
Cherry Styles, Zine Making Facilitator
Cherry is an artist, writer and gardener based in Huddersfield. She started The Chapess zine and Synchronise Witches Press, and her current practice spans art projects and educational activities within community settings.
Victoria Louise Doyle, Online Facilitator
Vicki is an artist and creative learning designer based between Newcastle upon Tyne and London. She is a member of Revolv Collective, an organisation that seeks to champion emerging artists through alternative teaching, collective working and collaboration in photography.
Frances Stacey, Producer
Fran is a producer and curator who works with artists to make films, videos, exhibitions and events. Her practice often involves open-ended research and collaborative processes. She is currently Director (maternity cover) at The Newbridge Project.
Bryony Rae Taylor, Producer
Bryony is a researcher, producer and arts journalist based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. She is currently working on her PhD on “Manifestations of Systemic Trauma” in British theatre.
Special thanks to Andrea Phillips, Niomi Fairweather and Emma Dean for their support in making the event so special.
Event supported by:
Introduction
Here is a copy of the introduction I gave to the film on the day:
Thanks so much for coming and joining us in the room and online.
It’s been a bit of a crazy process to get to this point. Maybe not externally, but definitely internally. It’s wild how you can want to do something so desperately, but be absolutely terrified of it at the same time.
I owe so much to the people who kept me kicking and screaming through the process of translating what was in my mind, to what is here today.
So the original seed of the idea for this project, as the title of the day suggests, was to dig down into what sovereignty is, and what it can mean for us as individuals, who are always in dialogue with the systems that shape us.
Sovereignty seemed to be a promise, or a carrot that was held up in front of us, pushing us to join a political cause, or buy into the latest health fad.
After a few years of trying to work out why I was so preoccupied with this word, I finally got diagnosed with adhd. I realised, ok, yep. I’m obsessed with the promise of self-governance, because it’s something that feels so impossible for me personally, and probably for a lot of us in this room.
It’s an extremely appealing idea that I might one day be able to gain some kind of control over my life, over my slippery sense of time, over my inability to process numbers and dates.
But I realised that claiming we can “take back control” is a blatant manipulation. A way of appealing to an imaginary scene in every individual’s mind. Naming something we ardently hope for, without really naming anything at all. If we are sovereign, in name only, we are possibly worse off than when we started, because we dared to hope for a fiction.
And, shouldn’t we strive to work together towards a collective good, rather than an individual dream?
—
In a minute I’m going to screen a film I made in collaboration with several other neurodivergent artists and individuals.
Which brings me to another point about naming.
It took me a long time to feel comfortable calling myself “an artist”. Like a lot of people I was seeking some kind of outside approval or permission in order to do so. Even though the majority of what I spent my time making, doing, thinking, socialising and working around, was art: it still felt like I was laying claim to something I had no right to.
Is there some kind of invisible threshold we cross, at some point, when we accept ourselves and the labels that used to feel so out of reach?
I remember going to a talk with a panel of writers when I was a teenager. At the Q&A a woman in the crowd asked “when did you begin to call yourself a writer? once you were published? once you had sold a certain number of copies?” The majority of the panel brushed off the question, if you’re writing you’re a writer. Once you cross the threshold, the dithering in front of the line can appear trivial. Just SAY IT. But it’s not so simple. It’s a complex matrix of inner bargaining, outer validation, and of course a period of fakery that hopefully becomes habit.
At several points along this process I tripped over thoughts like “but everyone is an artist!” or “well no brain is typical!” - But the fact is we need a specificity of language in order to describe and advocate for ourselves.
A lot of what I’m hinting at here is explained far better in the reflections you’ll see in my film, from the participants who shared with me so generously.
I ran an open call for video monologues, to allow the participants some agency over the way they were framed and heard and seen. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the response. Overjoyed and then pained that I could only afford to choose a few people.
Some people sent films that felt like perfectly rounded testimonials or artist films or stories in themselves. And it felt wrong to cut them up and try and add them to my film. So I made a showreel of those films to play in the cinema room next door.
I wanted to bring in a wide range of voices on this topic. I worried, of course, about speaking for people. It can feel a bit like a gold rush to define what neurodivergence is. But instead of sticking a flag into it, I wanted to join collectives like Project Art Works in opening doors of understanding for other people. And allowing space for disagreement and self-definition.
We will hear from Kate and Martin of Project Art Works in the next session. And I’m excited that we also have kin collective and Ciara Lenihan here to prompt further exploration and discussion on these topics later today.
But for now let’s watch the final version of my film. Despite spending a solid month in the edit suite, l of course exported this version at 2am last night.
It’s called 'all facing in the same direction'. The name came to me from a feeling of deep satisfaction while moving in synch with a room full of people in a yoga class. This feeling and this name somehow summed up my conflicted knotty thoughts. We are all facing towards this new, emerging language around neurodiversity, that can provide such deep understanding about our selves. The images the title brings up also spoke to my questions around sovereignty, and the alternating desire for and repulsion from conformity.
The film is 40 minutes long. I hope you enjoy it.
Show reel of Accompanying FIlms
A collection of films by neurodivergent artists played in the cinema space of Level 1 of BALTIC on Wednesday 26 July 2023, as part of Nominally Sovereign. They were selected from an Open Call for Grace’s film (above).
The artists were: Ashokkumar Mistry, Beth Malcolm, Byron Vincent, chelsea hare, Eva Marschan-Hayes, Karl Birrane, Laurie Coldwell, Liza Liebling, Rose Robbins Sandra Twine and one artist who preferred to remain anonymous. Many thanks to each of them for submitting their films.