Vantage Point.Virtuosity [art projects] : Reinventing the Wheel

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How do you see disability? Student designers at CATEA produced these artworks to illustrate in a positive light that a disability provides a person with a different set of tools to use in navigating this world. If you have any questions about the artwork, please Contact Us.

Reinventing the Wheel

Artist

Betsy Sugg

Medium

Electronic Media
16x20
Color

Note from Artist

While all mobility impairments do not necessarily involve a wheelchair, there is typically a separation within our minds that those who do not walk "normally"are unnatural and different. For this reason, I collected photos to illuminate objects that whirl, twist and spin -- some that are playful and some that generate power or create change. Each image is familiar and full of energy, creating a sense of action as the eye moves through the rows. Finally, the eye reaches the wheelchair, which is parked but aimed to move off the page. At this point the viewer realizes that in fact the wheelchair belongs to this group of pictures in that it is a powerful instrument that accomplishes a goal while reserving the right to be playful. The emphasis here is that the spinning of a wheel is a motion as natural as walking, and it is not something to be set apart.

Description of Art Work

This art piece is a landscape-oriented rectangle, and the body of it is a series of photos which framed by two lines of simply formatted text on the top and bottom. The top line is a quote from Tennyson, and reads: "Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change." Here, the words "spin" and "change" are highlighted in blue while the rest of the text is black. The bottom line of text reads: "It is time to reinvent how the world sees the wheel." The words "reinvent," and "the wheel" are highlighted in blue.

The photomontage is set up in somewhat of a grid pattern with 4 rows of pictures of varying frame sizes closely fit next to one another, separated by a thick white line on each side.

  • Starting the first row, in the top left corner there is a low vantage point shot of a brightly colored carnival swing rotating overhead. The next image, to the right, is an antique white windmill against a deep blue sky, and the arms are blurred in the picture from the quick rotation. The last image on the top row is a zoomed-in shot of a revolving Ferris wheel, painted a bright yellow with red structure.
  • The second row begins with a photo of hands molding a vase on a pottery wheel, with slip and clay sliding through the artist's fingers from the rotation. The next picture is slightly smaller than the ones before it, and is an image of a pinwheel against a light blue sky. The middle picture on the second row is of spinning tops at eye level, zoomed in especially on an orange one and a red one with the faint image of a green one in the background. The next image is a spinning pastel-colored globe, blurred with motion, against a stark white background. The last image on this row is of a girl's torso as she wiggles about in a hula-hoop next to a lake.
  • On the third row, a vertically oriented shot of a more modern windmill takes up two row heights in the montage; it is a low-vantage point image looking up at the tall structure against a stormy sky. The next image on the third row is of a few little girls holding hands in a sunny spot on the grass, playing "Ring Around the Rosie." Following is a blurred image of a spinning carnival ride with bright lights streaming through a nighttime sky. The last picture on the third row is centered-in on a dancing lady with her bright red flamenco skirt flowing around her.
  • On the last (fourth) row , a zoomed-in shot on a lathe-machine shows where a chunk of wood is being chiseled away on the rotating device to create an ornate spindle. The next photograph is a high-vantage point shot of a basketball being spun on an anonymous player's finger. In the following frame a Euro coin is spinning on a reflective, dark surface.

Finally, in the height of two rows and the width of two frames, a zoomed in picture of a wheelchair is placed facing the right side of the page as though the user is about to roll off. This final image is square and fits only the wheel, seen at eye level. The hand is the only part of the user that is visible, resting on top of the wheel as though he or she is about to push down. This is the only image in the montage that is not an action shot but rather a still image, thus setting it apart to emphasize its "potential energy."