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Rite of Passage - a gravedigger's memoir

13 May 2013

Blog Peter Street

Grave-digging was hazardous work back in the 1960s. There was very little machinery: graves were still largely dug by spade. There were no Health-and-Safety rules. Opening up a grave, after however many years, to inter a new member of the family, was anything but healthy or safe. The typical gravediggers who I met were hard men: ex-Marines, night club bouncers, bare-knuckle boxers. But I am physically small, and have struggled all my life with epilepsy and dyspraxia, which got me sacked from...

Broken vessel.

4 May 2013

Blog Gini

partial view of Mirka's bowl showing the dark blue glazed interior and the white points of slip spelling out the braille poem on the exterior.

Settling People Like You into the Lighthouse Gallery space was not without problems, compromise and pain, but for me all of that paled into insignificance on discovering that Mirka's beautiful bowl had been damaged somewhere between being wrapped up and packed in Salisbury and being unwrapped in Poole - the day before the exhibition was due to open. The large chip on its rim is a complete puzzle, and the sadness is pervading. The bowl was part of a collaborative installation with ceramic...

Monsters

3 May 2013

Blog Joanne Cox

Beautiful sun, blue sky, I'm late practicing today got distracted reading facebook, been thinking about a link Sophie Partridge posted about Mary Laver www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/proud-disabled-hero-mary-lavers-1862499 a disabled woman who is contemplating hunger strike to beg David Cameron to listen to concerns about the closure of the Independent Living Fund. It's going round my head and I try to imagine what it must feel like to have decisions about the quality of every aspect of...

Reclaiming my living room

2 May 2013

Blog Joanne Cox

Here I am wondering out loud on my cello, connecting with the blue sky, the cherry blossom and freshly painted walls. Something got taken away when support staff turned up unannounced mistakenly citing legal agreements to do with compulsory meetings and my tennancy. I have never signed such an agreement nor am required to do so. All sorted now and with these sounds I'm reclaiming my living space, feeling relieved (it's the third time this has happened in five years and the other times...

‘A Fistful of Froth’ (coming soon)

2 May 2013

Blog Katherine Araniello

        Plot Summary         In 1858 a lone SickBitchCrip has lost herself in the barren terrain of the Wild West. She has no friends and no idea how she ended up in this hostile unforgiving environment. Survival is only guaranteed by the merciless killing of others. SickBitchCrip must keep her wits about her at all costs, dodging bullets from her buddies, total unadulterated scum who are almost as crooked and bent...

Review: The Angina Monologue by Doug Devaney

11 May 2013

Feature

Is it possible to make compelling theatre out of a cardiac arrest? John O’Donoghue went to see Doug Devaney’ show, part of Brighton’s Five Pound Fringe.

Review: COnscription by Caglar Kimyoncu

9 May 2013

Feature

COnscription explores the call-up to military service for people who don't 'fit the mould'. The four-channel film is on show at the Old Truman Brewery, London until 18 May. Joe McConnell reviews a multimedia installation which follows the stories of four individuals who meet at a military hospital - three subjects under assessment and their doctor.

Review: The Knitting Circle by Vital Xposure

6 May 2013

Feature

A gripping celebration of the forgotten lives of women who survived long term institutional incarceration.  Julie McNamara's 'The Knitting Circle'  (a Vital Xposure production currently on national tour) reviewed by Joe McConnell

Gallery: Sarah Hirst

14 March 2013

Feature

Sarah Hirst is currently in her 3rd and final year on a fine art degree. The theme of her work is about exploring the masks we wear in everyday life. Her gallery of Dream Watercolours represents work that came out of a project making work about experience of hallucinations.

Gallery: Liz Crow: Bedding In, Bedding Out - a live durational performance

26 February 2013

Feature

Liz Crow presents her new work 'Bedding In, Bedding Out' which is one of the eight Diverse Perspectives commissions funded by Arts Council's Grants for the Arts. Drawing on audio recordings and time lapse photography of the performance, Reflections from the Bed introduces the work, its backdrop and its politics.

All The Lonely People: an anthology by Plum Tree Books

30 April 2013

Feature

Niamh Clune, Founder of Plum Tree Books sent out a call across Facebook, announcing that she wanted to do an anthology on All The Lonely People... poems, art, prose focussing on the subject of loneliness. DAO presents a sampler from the online anthology.