Disability Arts Online

Transformation began when Nancy Willis was approached by Allan Sutherland about contributing to an oral history of disability arts. Nancy agreed but wanted the interview to focus on the development of her work as an artist. However, in reality, it was difficult to separate her art work from the deeply personal stories which emerged. When first presented with the poems, Nancy felt uncomfortable about consenting to such personal stories being fixed into a text format. After some reflection, she proposed the creation of an animation, which would bring together the poems and images in a narrative stream.

Over the past year, the creation of Transformation has led Nancy into a reassessment of her life's work. The animations combine previously made paintings, prints, photographs and film. This material is carefully selected, often representing the original artworks that inspired the poems, but transformed through the time-based medium of animation. Musician and artist Chris Morris (aka Christopher Pigeom) has composed original music for the animation and contributed pieces from his collaborative project 'Six Foot Pigeon'. This experimental soundtrack forms a mysterious counterpoint to Nancy's more traditional approach as a painter and printmaker.

The themes in Transformation partly emerge from external difficulties and partly from those inner conflicts, which are rarely explored territory in the struggle for equality and human rights. The animations explore complex ideas about the nature of memory, identity and disability, catching fragments of the past which might be lost forever if not documented in some way.

Colin Hambrook asked Nancy how she felt when Allan approached her about contributing to the oral history project.

Initially, he told me about the work he had done with Paddy Masefield. Much as I saw the value in what he had produced, on a personal level I was hesitant - fearing that in opening an airing cupboard to take out a flannel, the entire contents might fall out.

Allan persisted and because I'd known him a long time I didn't shut the door on the idea. I realised that I would feel a little less overwhelmed by the process if I focussed on talking about my art. It was both my anchor and my safety net that could hold some of the stories without feeling that the whole thing might get out of hand.

So I took my pictures along and Allan asked me about them. I talked for many hours into his tape machine. I couldn't conceive that anybody could make anything of what came out. I thought maybe he'd quietly forget the whole thing so when he reappeared some months later, with a set of poems I was amazed. I don't know if we will use them all but we've started off with a selection that I feel the most able to bear being let out into the world.

You talked about the process helping you to review your way of working?

At the same time as doing this work with Allan, I've been trying to organise my work: finding drawings and prints that have sat dormant inside a Plan Chest, paintings hiding in the back of cupboards and rescuing sculptures from storage. A variety of things have come together to form part of this process, for example, thinking through material for my website and planning to move house. It's been a fruitful experience, giving me a way of sharing what I've been doing all these years. In many ways, Allan came along at the right time to help me negotiate my way through three decades of my art work.

Article and interview : Colin Hambrook and Joe McConnell with contributions from Katalin Trencsenyi and Siobhan Wanklyn.