Forgive the delay in posting this. So much has been going on in the last two months, I can hardly catch my breath even now.
Here is the review I wrote for Artlink Magazine, covering the recent Yayoi Kusama exhibition in Singapore: Yayoi Kusama – Life is the Heart of the Rainbow.
And here are some of my own photographs from the amazing experience.
My article for Artlink Magazine, “Reflections on the neurodiverse city,” is now online.
Excerpt:
“Many autistics experience “body‑in‑space” challenges. The opening poem describes my own proprioceptive quirk: I can dance, but the simple task of walking along the pavement without tripping requires a conscious rhythmic pattern in my mind, usually in the form of a song or a tune. Other idiosyncrasies inherent to autism include extreme sensitivity to the visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile senses. Lights, colours, sounds, vibrations, smells, tastes and textures may separately or in complex confluence trigger extreme reactions like nausea, headache, vertigo and even excruciating pain. The mental propensity towards precision – that is, noticing things in greater detail, also heightens sensory reception and reaction. A common unifying theme in this richly woven, polyrhythmic and highly chromatic existence is that of anxiety. Coping with life in an environment not designed for and conflicting with native autistic modalities, the autistic person is constantly in a state of stress.”
Snoösphere has been in the news in Australia!
ABC Lateline featured Snoösphere on 20 September 2017: “Snoosphere: the art installation tackling mental illness.”
A news write up: Snoösphere, an art installation designed to relax, opens at The Big Anxiety festival.
And we even made it to Singapore’s Straits Times’ “Today in Pictures”!
And here are some of my own photographs of the amazing space.
20 SEP — 11 NOV10:00 AM — 5:00 PM
VENUE: Ground Floor, UNSW Galleries, Art & Design, Paddington Campus
Lucy and I were featured on Mediacorp’s Channel 5 – On the Red Dot – last week, 21 July 2017. The programme was about autism in Singapore.
The full programme is at the Toggle site – though I am told that people outside of Singapore may not be able to access the site. Here is the link anyway.
A written article on the programme can be accessed via this link.
For friends wanting a ‘preview’ of my upcoming installation, Clement Space in the City (2017), do check out the videos!
Thank you, The BIG Anxiety Festival, for allowing the preview of my installation; and Moriya Diamond, for letting us use your space and providing such a wonderful teatime spread afterwards!
Scattered pieces. Little chips, broken off a brittle whole. Windblown. Each one a part of entity, identity and embodied Beingness. Sensory assault. Social weariness. Harsh terrains of normative colonial tyranny, treading through landscapes only the very bravest dare to traverse, yet with such naiveté.
Anxiety is a behemoth so nebulous, insidious and misconstrued. Woven tightly into thick existential tapestries, in myriad hues, flavours, scents, rhythms, patterns and textures.
The artist pursues relentlessly the life of the work. The autistic artist often risking much harm and desecration of Self, in order to bring forth symbolic gestures translated into the normative realms of understanding.
This autistic artist is multi-tasking, an activity autistic persons are often (most ironically) said to be profoundly impaired at doing. The anxiety levels are at head-pounding dynamic levels, a siren screeching, so high-pitched it is not heard by the human ear.
Lucy is not human. She hears. Her presence brings elemental equilibrium that no human intervention can mimic. The show must go on. Perhaps, even this, she understands in her parallel embodied knowingness?
The autistic artist grapples with mental exhaustion, physical pain and emotional weariness. Dealing with the complexities and follies of human interactivity – whether normative or autistic or neurodivergent – is exhausting. And hope-defying.
This weekend, we are working on the installations for Clement Space in the City (2017).
Lucy and her two little canine cousins are helping. Engaging with material and canine angels is clemency in itself… Defragmenting… Realigning… inside Clement Space.
The autistic artist presses ever onwards.
See you all at #thebiganxiety in Sydney!
Clement Space in the City (2017) is part of Neurodiverse-city, presented by The BIG Anxiety 2017 festival. At the Customs House, Sydney. Opens 20 September 2017.
Multitasking at a frenetic pace and with zinging intensity is not one of my innate talents, but I am attacking it all with as much gung-ho as I can possibly muster.
Things are coming to a crescendo-accelerando now… exploring anxiety and its effects in real life drama as well as unfolded inside artistic expression…
Here’re the pages I’ve set up for two of my works in “Neurodiverse-city” at the Customs House, Sydney (opens 20 September 2017). Click on the links to get to the pages, with photos and video teasers. Enjoy! And see you in Sydney!
Snoösphere, 2017
Snoösphere 2017 is coming to Singapore!
Calling for autistic participants to join us in this exciting project. We need your feedback and advice!
As part of our Australia-Singapore alliance / inter-city collaboration, Team Snoösphere will be in Singapore to meet with Singaporean autistics for consultative sessions.
What: Expeditions to Cloud Forest at Gardens by the Bay, between 27-29 April.
Who: Autistic persons of all ages, speaking and/or non-speaking.
How: Please contact Dr. Dawn-joy Leong (dawnjoy@mac.com) to register interest, and for more information.
More about Snoösphere 2017 here.
Upcoming project: Call Out!
Snoösphere, 2017
Snoösphere 2017 – a multisensory experience with a focus on autism, featuring autistic creative partnership.
Lull Studios and UNSW would like to invite autistic persons of all ages to join us as creative advisors in designing a gallery-based art installation.
Snoösphere is a space made up of interactive sound, vision, aroma, and touch-controlled elements, in which people can roam and explore. It is an immersive space for promoting discovery, empathy and understanding of the spectrum of neurodiversity.
Named for the noösphere, which is the phase in the Earth’s evolution after the biosphere – a future planetary sphere of mind – the Snoösphere promotes embodied consciousness of the sensory and energetic properties and performance of physical space.
We see this as the especial province of autistic artists. Instead of being passive end-users, autistic participants are an influential part of developing Snoösphere, putting into practice the ethos “Nothing About Us Without Us.”
Dr. Dawn-joy Leong is the autism consultant for Snoösphere, personally facilitating the interesting and fun autism-friendly sessions.
Participants will experience creative engagement and learn about the process of building a multisensory interactive environment aimed at supporting the sensory needs of autistics. Contributions from our autistic advisors will be duly acknowledged in the final production.
Introductory consultation sessions and workshops for small groups and individuals (completely free) will be held 17-20 November 2016, at UNSW Art & Design, Paddington.
Please feel free to contact Dawn-joy for more detailed information, or to register your interest in becoming part of our project. Dawn will reply to emails promptly and no question is too trivial.
Email: dawnjoy@mac.com
Phone: 0477424585
Sonorous Repose – Lucy Like-a-Charm 2015 by Dawn-joy Leong (please do not reuse without seeking prior permission)
Dear Friends and Supporters,
We have made it! The PhD has passed muster and now it’s time for acknowledgements.
—-
Scheherazade’s Sea – autism, parallel embodiment and elemental empathy.
Dawn-joy Sau Mun Leong, UNSW Art & Design, April 2016
Dedication:
To my father, Dr. Leong Vie-Ying (1930-2007).
Acknowledgements:
This work would not have been possible without the following:
Deepest gratitude to my supervisors,
Professor Jill Bennett and Dr. Petra Gemeinboeck,
for your patience, guidance, advice, support, and for believing.
Thank you, Dr. Sally Clark, for your advice, encouragement and support.
…
My Lucy Like-a-Charm
…
My family:
Thank you, mother, Molly Chye Gek Ong, for your care and fortification.
My beloved baby-sister and faithful champion, Althea Leong,
thank you for always being here, there, and everywhere for me.
Dear brother-in-law, Robin Sing,
thank you for your patience, sustenance and unquestioning support.
My canine nephews, Bizcuit and Tiny Sing
…
Thank you, my friends who have played important roles in my journey:
Yee Sang, Ho
Rick Feedtime
Minh Vuong
Kateryna Fury
Colin G. Marshall and Misty Marshall
Shan Patterson and Sally Patterson
C.J. Wan Ling, Wee
Margie Anne Edmonds
Brad Beadel
Gavin Koh
Boon Ling, Yee
Shane Fenton
Andrea Kingan
Rosemary Wilkinson
and
Everyone who has walked a part of our journey alongside us, however briefly, every single moment has mattered.
Dawn-joy Leong 