Artist and wordsmith, whose work engages with issues of access, from acknowledged physical needs to perceived symbolic exclusions. After being selected as one of DAO's New Voices in 2011, Gini's online presence has become an integral part of her arts practice

The Chairborne Identity

4 July 2012

Blog

I should give you my car-keys, you could park my car anyday. That's amazing, I couldn't do that with a wheelchair. You really can get around in that tiny space, well done.   And I boil. Spontaneous anger drives me to growl: Carkeys? Hand over your spine, I've got wheels of my own. You are so clever walking; I couldn't, not with those legs! And: Congratulations, you really do work those legs well, amazing you don't even fall over...   There is no real logic to this rudeness. I wasn't...

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Earthbowl 4 - Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

28 June 2012

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This is the last in the series. The timing is deliberate - this is my contingency bowl. In case time and tide conspired against 'Creating the Spectacle!' In case the event was cancelled; in case the worst case scenario swallowed up the adventure and the underwater wheelchair disappeared into oblivion. But actually it also makes a rather splendid trophy to present, with a fanfare, to all the successful participants of the most carefully prepared and choreographed adventure - the journey across...

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Earthbowl 3, Fleet Lagoon

27 June 2012

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I could hardly sleep a wink last night. I might have been a little busy this week, but today has had big, bold, red pencil marks all over it for a while now. Depending on the weather, the tides, fate...Today is the day! Today, in filming for 'Creating the Spectacle!' the underwater wheelchair takes what anyone could only describe as the absolute scariest part of it's journey. I'm heading for Portland to be witness and part of the audience for this stage of the project. I shall be...

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Earthbowl 2; hinting at things to come?

26 June 2012

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The eagle eyed DAO reader just might have noticed that the image used (yesterday) in Earthbowl 1 was not actually from 'Creating the Spectacle!' 'Portal' (2008), that iconic picture of Sue Austin under water in a wheelchair, was however our first hint of things to come - watch this space! The Earthbowl series continues with an image from the early development stages of the project when the chair was still being refined and Sue was still learning how to control it. Earthbowl 2 contains an image...

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Relay

25 June 2012

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Exhibition, 21 June - 14 July 2012, Salisbury Arts Centre.     Relay: handing the baton of inspiration through time and across disciplines, has produced this exhibition at Salisbury Arts Centre. I should, at the outset, declare my involvement, both as an artist and wordsmith and also as member of LUAN (LinkUpArtists Network) whose work, together with images from LUAN member Sue Austin's 'Creating the Spectacle!' represents LinkUpArts' presence as one of Salisbury Arts Centre's...

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Tweet failure; 'Headlining' disconnection.

21 June 2012

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Gini blogs about the Headlining Disability Shape event at Southbank Centre. Has anyone else compared twitter to a glass of wine? Wheelborne, a glass in hand stops me in my tracks; wheeling requires both hands. So does tweeting. Even when I'm in the powerchair one hand is occupied with the controls and moving around  requires constant re-evaluation of the geography. So I have to stop still to drink or tweet. Wheelless seem to stop anywhere, not even bothering to tuck themselves into...

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Some other Culture?

18 June 2012

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I'm back among people I should theoretically have some understanding of and connection to. Back in a culture that should feel familiar, if not comfortable. Back wondering how to rejoice and celebrate difference and diversity while committing to integration and equality of opportunity, comprehension and access. I say I don't want to be seen as different, but what I probably mean is that I don't want my difference to be seen as alien; I still need to be accepted as me; an individual with unique...

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Present Opportunity - accessible pavement?

17 June 2012

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I had a meeting to attend, in my home town, just 8 minutes away in the car, however it became necessary to travel in my wheelchair so I allowed a good hour. It wasn't enough. Deeply shaken and in a lot of pain I was forced to abandon my journey after an hour. I was two thirds of the way there. Wheelborne, do I have the right to expect that a pavement should be accessible and traversable? Do I have the right to expect that a dropped curb should facilitate my safe delivery to a second...

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Proof of Existence

6 June 2012

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I traveled part of the way to Hakone under a poster with an image in grey, of cracks in a pavement - Proof of Existence. The Hakone area seems stuffed with museums and galleries that will tempt me back; this poster was for Shinji Omaki's Proof of Existence.   Passing the Hakone Open-Air Museum I saw evidence of artworks that will need to be explored. Plentiful signs and posters pointed to other inviting destinations; Hakone brought itself to my attention and certainly has something to...

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Mutilated tans and a duck cenotaph.

5 June 2012

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I seek Japanese fabric. Something on a roll, where I could ask for a metre or two. I love the colour aesthetic here, and the use of texture. I feel the need to take some of it home with me. This fabric lives in the past. It comes in one narrow width, one long length - it comes in a Kimono quantity - a 'tan' - ca 35 cms wide and twelve metres long. Linen or silk, sometimes cotton, each with it's own tradition of weave and colour. And each weave or colour has it's own traditional application: the...

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Soldier marigolds, pots and recycling.

4 June 2012

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I have made contact with a potter, Yoko Terai, who has an exhibition of beautiful pots and a friend who speaks some English. The pots, elegant forms in calm shades of white, have a gentle, sensuous beauty, but also the imposing authority of Mount Fuji; I had difficulty restraining myself from picking them up. I can imagine living with them. I could also live with a regular delivery of flowers - the most beautiful arrangements of cut flowers; exquisite mini-bonsai in round balls of moss or tiny...

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Chopstick impressions, access and flying solo.

1 June 2012

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I've had a disagreement with a woman in an art gallery. We were discussing; I was talking about the visitors to galleries, she was talking about the exhibitors in general and the artist exhibiting there in particular. I said that Japanese took art very seriously. She declared that he had a free and easy style and Japanese art was very varied. We politely agreed to disagree when suddenly she realised what I was trying to say, looked discreetly around, and then totally agreed with me. We...

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Symbolic clothes, Kimono and Peter Pan

31 May 2012

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Discovering the imposing bronze statue behind Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa reminded me that I really do wish to attend a Kabuki performance. The traditional Japanese building of our local Kabuki theatre is controversially being replaced by a modern brick box and not due to reopen until next year. I'm hoping it will be amazingly accessible. I checked out the alternative theatres and discovered that I had missed the May season. I had hoped to go to a morning performance as the event usually lasts...

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Crowds, cat cafes and Teleporting.

30 May 2012

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Tokyu Hands (pronounced Tokyo Hanz) was reviewed by the New York Times as 'the' department store for the serious home owner and hobbyist, it has also been described as a 'makers paradise'. Floors of fascinating items, many only available in Japan, tempt me.  Countless arts possibilities reawaken as shelves full of curious and useful items demand attention. I want to take one of the stores home with me. We visited the flagship store at Shibuya, but at Ikebukuro they also have a cat cafe,...

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Spatial justice and privilege

29 May 2012

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My life in Tokyo is not exactly domestic, there are few meals to cook or chores to attend to. The robot cleaner takes care of bare essentials and meals are mostly eaten out. Passing a restaurant, we check for access and availability and by the time I roll in, several seats have been removed to give me a choice of seating. I am greeted with dignity, with no sense of being too much bother, or of being patronised. This area that I call home is quiet and comfortable, with very little evidence of...

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Onsen, Na'vi and black eggs.

28 May 2012

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The journey to Hakone involves platform-lifts, chair-lifts, elevators,  trains, metro, cable train and cable car (ropeway) as well as some energetic pushing and pulling up and down very steep hills. Mount Hakone is famous for it's hot springs, peaceful lake and eggs boiled in simmering hot pools. These eggs, their shells turned black by sulphur, are said to prolong life. The 'boiling valley' is 1044 metres above sea level, and contains a lake created by volcanic activity; this...

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Shibaraku.

27 May 2012

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I have made a journey back to Asakusa, it involves changing trains and previously the station staff have been very helpful, but this time the helpfulness petered out when I arrived at the first station. The man-with-the-ramp was not there and I was on the point of blocking the sliding  door, to prevent the train leaving, when he came running onto the platform barking 'wait'. At Asakusa station, following signs for the Temple exit, I came to a full stop at a flight of stairs and proceeded...

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Tema Hema - Effort Time.

26 May 2012

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Today I revisited Design Sight 21_21, the design exhibition space of the Issey Miyake Foundation, created by Issey Miyake and Tadeo Ando. Tema Hima - the Art of Living in Tohoku, was exactly that. Film and exhibited objects described the traditional ways of sourcing food and tools that are being practiced in Tohoku, site of The Great East Japan Earthquake. Visually fascinating, informative and an advocate for the inspirational quality of this way of living holding a key to future survival,...

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Semicyber

25 May 2012

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Lying in bed without my wheels, it occurs to me that I am semicyber, but being without them does not free me from their impact. And these times, out of the public gaze, have no impact on the way society views me. Cyborg or cyberbodied, in the public consciousness a chairborne entity is 'bound' to it's wheels. Here in Japan where I have almost no Japanese, I am freed from any negative feedback regarding my wheelborne presence, by my own lack of understanding. In that way I am freer to create and...

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Greenroom Festival. 2012

24 May 2012

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Yokohama's Greenroom Festival of music, art and film (www.greenroom.jp/ ) was this year held in the historical Red Brick Warehouse, close to the futuristic Odaibashi ferry terminal: "Never has architecture been so clearly at the forefront of the festival experience as it is at Yokohama's Greenroom Festival, the annual jazz, ska, lounge and surf-rock celebration that takes place at the Odaibashi International Ferry Terminal at Yokohama port"...

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Tokyo inspirations.

23 May 2012

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Today I'm trying out a Japanese wheelchair to take home; not exactly the one I'd planned for or expected, but good. I hope. I sense my eutopia moving closer. Actually Utopia moves like Michael Jackson; the moonwalk ever deceptive. Having the iPad is great, the Brushes app frees me to explore previous frustrated trains of thought and practice, and being here in Tokyo inspires me to make more creative links between image and word, links I had previously been struggling to realise. My search for...

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Creative Asia

22 May 2012

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Ok. I've been here 6 days, this is blog number 5, they all sat frustrated, unposted, on my iPad while I attempted to master the technology using unfamiliar tools. How do I monitor the size of my images? Resize? Crop? How do I convert .png to .jpg? I guess I will have figured it when I post this, but the Greenroom blog will be out of sync with my tweet... I may use wheels to augment my body; I may long for a cybersuit, or an avatar, so that I can run and climb and swish a skirt, I enjoy using...

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Two legs ok. Four wheels cyber?

21 May 2012

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I subscribe to the theory that Utopia always appears to be getting closer. And with the perfect place, the perfect society, comes the perfect life-form - the cyborg. And wheelborne people could be closer than most. The chairborne aquanaut leads the field, being more than just a metaphor for her chosen life-form, closer to whales, dolphins and sharks than any mere human in dive-gear. I came to Tokyo hoping to pursue my hunt for Disability Arts, but instead find myself on an apparent detour. I...

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Roaming

20 May 2012

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Today I spent roaming in the sunshine, getting my bearings. I rolled alongside Sumida and headed for Ginza. There are more cyclists weaving along the pavements, more mobil-phonists standing in awkward places and I do believe more wheelchairs in evidence. I have discovered that Japanese department stores regularly host art exhibitions, and just past Ginza I did indeed see evidence of a Japanese artist, possibly inflenced by Klimt and Picasso, exhibiting on the sixth floor; what a great idea. The...

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Settling in

19 May 2012

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Smooth as a financial manager, Sumida reflects my sunshine hopes back at me in a glassy smile. Tokyo, gateway to Utopia, or the crutch to support my fantasies? Is the promise of independence sweeter than the realisation? Is the realisation realistic, or merely my wheelborne take on the impossible dream? Humanity seems to possess a built-in hunger for the impossible dream, and living in an age where the dream becomes increasingly universal, and increasingly focused on bodily perfection, I am...

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