Category Archives: Arts & Disability

Something About Home

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Promenade Theatre Performance: Something About Home,
conceptualised & directed by Peter Sau, in collaboration with 6 pan-disabled artists,
commissioned by the National Gallery Singapore.

“Something About Home“, a commission by the National Gallery Singapore as part of the Light to Night Festival 2020, features members of the Disabled Artists’ Collective in a groundbreaking professional performance by a cast of artists with different disabilities. Directed and conceptualised by theatre maestro, Peter Sau, “Something About Home” vehemently rejects the common exploitation of the disability narrative, pushes past the current trend of trite and contrived tokenism, and – in a determined collective effort – sets the bar higher for professionalism in the local Arts & Disability arena.

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Clement Space – a new iteration.

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I am excited to announce my commission by the National Gallery Singapore, to install a new iteration of Clement Space. Opening on 11 January 2020 as part of the larger Light to Night Festival, my installation will run on until 1 March 2020.

Clement Space
by Dawn-joy Leong
The city is filled with constant noise, crowds, smells and bright lights. Everyone is affected in some way by the cacophony, and stress levels rise with each shove, push and crunch. For the autistic person with hypersensitivity, the city can be a merciless and savage force against mental and physical well-being. There is an increasing awareness of access to inclusion for Autistic people in public spaces and growing in popularity is the ‘calm room’. However, these are usually designed by non-autistic persons based on medical models and there is little to no detailed consultation with actual autistic end-users.
Instead of the clinically prescriptive, therapy-focused ‘calm room’, Clement Space is an immersive experience offering intimate reflections from the rich tapestry of the artist’s own autistic senses, welcoming all into a personal sensory wonderland where curious engagement, safe respite and peaceful restoration co-exist in delicate, tranquil balance. Clement Space is a concept and term coined by the artist in her 2016 PhD dissertation, inspired by her psychiatric assistance dog, Lucy Like-a-Charm, a rescued former racing Greyhound from Australia.
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Empowering Beauty

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In an ugly world, attempting Empowerment of Beauty can be a dreadful struggle, one which goes against the fundamental nature of Beauty itself. But we need to keep going, believing, hoping, lest darkness engulfs & destroys.

Imagine a world in which different kinds of minds contribute from diverse platforms to form a dynamic, cohesive, global whole.

Imagine safer, gentler and stronger communities in which eclectic ways of thinking may thrive within a Neurocosmopolitan culture of resonant, empathic vibrancy.

It is not my purpose to ‘fix’ what I ‘broken’, but to empower Beauty in the vulnerable and unnoticed.

neurodivergent world

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Clement Space @ Playeum 2019 – Dawn-joy Leong

Seems as if I’ve been involved in quite a few “firsts” in Singapore lately. The most recent was the very first Autism/Neurodivergent-Led, Disabled-Led Art & Design residency, which was support by the National Library’s library@orchard branch, and yesterday saw the soft opening of Singapore’s first Neurodivergent immersive and interactive space – crafted by two autistic artists and two artists with Down syndrome, curated by Esther Joosa and Imran Mohamed for Playeum, a centre for children to discover creativity in multiple ways. Continue reading →

Professional Engagement

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Email: dr.dawnjoyleong@gmail.com

DESIGNING CLEMENT SPACE: conducive space concept, design and creation.

Design, creation & consultation for calm rooms, quiet corners, cosy pods.

Clement Space @ Playeum, Singapore, 2019
Designing Clement Space, library@orchard, 2019, Singapore.
Clement Space @ Yale-NUS, 2018, Singapore
Clement Space in the City, 2017, Customs House Library, Sydney, Australia
Sonata in Z, 2015, UNSW Art & Design, Australia
Haptic Autistry, 2012, Hong Kong.

Design, creation and consultation of sensory engagement in calm space.

Clement Space, National Gallery Singapore, 2020
Clement Space, National Gallery Singapore, 2020
Clement Space, National Gallery Singapore, 2020

TALKS / WORKSHOPS / LECTURES: art-science research & practice.

Clement Space: concept, design & creation

Autism, Neurodiversity & Multi-Art Praxis

Autism, Art & Mental Wellbeing

Autism Neurodiversity & Education

Education University Hong Kong, 2018
UNSW School of Education, 2015 – Australia
Asia Pacific Autism Conference, 2019 – Singapore
TEDx, 2018 – Singapore
NTU, 2018 – Singapore
NUS, 2018 – Singapore

COMMISSIONS

Research – Autism, Neurodiversity, Multi-Art Practice & Design.

Writing – reviews, articles, critical analysis.

Art & Music Installations, Exhibitions, Performances.

Something About Home, 2020 – National Gallery Singapore
Little Sweets, 2014 – Australia
Scheherazade’s Sea, 2010 – Hong Kong
Scheherazade’s Sea, 2010 – Hong Kong
Scheherazade’s Sea, 2010 – Hong Kong
Scheherazade’s Sea, 2013, World Stage Design Festival – Cardiff, UK

Autistic Thriving @ TEDx

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This is the complete unedited script of my TEDx speech, delivered today amidst a flurry of technical failures and farcical-comedic twists. (Read about it here.)

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AUTISTIC THRIVING
Dawn-joy Leong
4 August 2018
TEDx Pickering Street
Singapore

~

I dance,
Because
I cannot walk,
The ground,
It is too strange.
I must count:
One, two,
One, two, three!

Autistic people are given many different labels by the non-autistic world. One of them is ‘clumsy,’ and by that measure, I suppose I am – it is a conscious effort for me to walk in a straight line, navigate bumpy surfaces, and stroll and chat at the same time. Yet, how does ‘clumsiness’ explain the ability to dance? When there is music, my body becomes freed from the tyranny of the walk, and the ground doesn’t seem so daunting anymore. Continue reading →

Autistic Thriving @TEDx

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Lucy and I shall be at TEDx Pickering Street this Saturday 4 August 2018. Come join us and hear my ideas on how autistic and non-autistic people may grow and thrive, not despite autism but because of the unique features of autism, and what society can learn from autistic persons.

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[Autistic Thriving – Dr. Dawn-Joy Leong]
There is a great deal of ‘awareness’ these days about Autism – mainly from non-autistic observations. However, where are the Actually Autistic voices in this cacophony of opinions and interpretations? What is it like to be autistic? Discover how Dawn learns to thrive within her autistic ecology, not despite but because of her autism.
Grab your tickets here: https://tedxpsthrive.peatix.com/

[自闭世界的生意盎然]
自闭症在当下取得了广泛的关注，只不过这些观察结果都是从非自闭症患者角度获得的。可是抛开这些不和谐的观点和解释，我们从何听到自闭症患者的真实发声？作为一个自闭症患者是什么样子？在这场演讲中，Dawn会向我们分享她是如何在患有自闭症的情况下茁壮成长。