Squeeze Box Artists in Residency page - still under development please do come back soon

Squeeze Box is a shared space - the multi-discipline collaborations, with endless possibilities and connections speak to the fundamental of disabilities. To create a space where each complex web of practise finds ever increasing of transcends rigid framework and disrupts ablest structure. These brilliant developing artists have each brought unique narrative and discord to the work, and in turn Squeeze Box has helped shape their development - ultimately allowing the artist in the room to be seen, promoted and cared for. Most of the text below are in their own words - the understanding of disability products and identity and sometimes merges with stand point put forward by this website, and at other times offering opposing (yet 100% vialled) views.

MakeTank, Exeter Autumn 2023 - Susan Norton-turner

Susan, a mixed media artist and parent advocate with an FdA in Contemporary Arts Practice and a Visual Communication student at Falmouth University, explores the powerful concept of labelling in society. Her work brings attention to the unspoken labels we encounter daily, shedding light on the issues often left unaddressed. Through her art, Susan aims to amplify the voices of those who feel marginalized and unheard, pushing against the boundaries of visibility and acceptance.

Susan’s work focuses on and celebrates neurodiversity, a symbiotic statement of action to Squeeze Box, which stems from lived experience of physical disability.

This work exhibited and shared the MakeTank space alongside Squeeze Box during our pilot takeover there. 

Susan continued her advocacy in her Paignton exhibition, with her animated collection, ‘Lines of Silence’. Inspired by personal experiences and connections to the disabled community, this project delves into the realm of non-verbal communication, portraying the intricacies of expression through gestures and body language. Through evocative visuals, Lines of Silence highlights the challenges non-verbal individuals face, bringing attention to the importance of empathy in understanding communication beyond words. It is both a creative exploration and a call to action, urging viewers to foster inclusivity and acceptance in their interactions.

A large TV screen in a shop front window. its showing the outline of two pairs of hands completing macaton signs . next to it is a framed piece of writing , too small to read .

The Liberal Club, Paignton Spring 2024 -Susan Norton-turner, Kerry Leigh Juhren, Emily Bunting

Along side Susan’s Lines of Silence, Kerry and Emily took over the big shop front window connected to the Liberal club space

Kerry Leigh Juhren

Kerry is a visual artist, pursuing an FdA in Contemporary Arts Practice at University Centre South Devon, England and is exploring new and evolving ideas surrounding inclusivity, communication, self-worth; intertwined with her own connection to the natural world. Striving to produce a sustainable practice she currently works with sculpture and various print techniques.

Her personal knowledge and experiences, combined with artistic exploration, examines how art can not only offer an opportunity for self-expression, but may also become an outlet, a voice. Examining barriers intertwined within the complex and wonderful diversity we hold as people.

Kerry’s work showcased in 2024 investigated the monotony and relentless need for documents and paperwork, forms needed to survive in a world of barriers and how all of us are so much more than the form we are written on.

Using print, paint and oil washes she explores how self-identity has the potential to be removed through the strain that Social Care now faces, and how important it is to really look at the individual, not the form. The work sensitively approaches the importance of being seen.

2 A4 images hanging in a shop window. Top is a black women in pink dress and pink boots lying down. The bottom one is a character doing a what looks like impossible splits in gym wear and weights.
Like a dolls house. A small wooden structure has pip forms making up furniture and wall paper. It sits in a shop front window.
5 A4 sheets of white paper hanging in the window. The top 3 has dyed ink on it, with red, purple and brown colours. The bottom 2 has text which is to small to read.
In a window, a white bit of paper with writing on has ink stains of vibrate colour, purple and orange. A purple sketch eye can just be seen.

Emily Bunting

Emily is local to Torquay, and has lived there al her life. She has had a strong passion for art and creativity from a young age and has worked hard to develop her skills as an artist over the years. As a result, she has become a skilled artist and illustrator with a unique style that she has cultivated through dedication and commitment to her craft. She draws inspiration from the enchanting worlds crafted by two of her favourite animation studios, Studio Ghibli and Pixar. She aims to include a touch of magic in every piece she creates. Taking inspiration from the narratives and brilliance of these influential studios, she pays homage to her sources of inspiration. Her goal is to create illustrations that give a sense of wonder and delight, that can also serve as education for the disability she struggles with.

These illustrations are intricate pieces with layers of meaning that invite viewers to engage with the complexities of EDS and learn about the condition, mixing awareness and educating of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, with the essence and figures of Fashion Illustration, instead of showing off the clothes of the models, the things that make them unique are shown off. They celebrate diversity, defy limitations, and foster a sense of community and empowerment. Through the artful portrayal, the illustrations make a valuable contribution to raising awareness and understanding of this often invisible condition, showcasing that whilst the things that make them different are what makes them stand out, they are to be celebrated..

The Barnfield Theater, Exeter Northcott Autumn 2024 - Beth Staples, Yudi Wu, Philip Robinson & Luca Saunders & Tarrin Vane

    Beth Staples

Adorning her wheelchair with faux sunflowers, Beth is a chronically ill PHD student, life model and visual artist whose work celebrates the uniqueness and vulnerability of the disabled body. She is on a mission to create a series of life portraits of impaired bodies that reflect the rich diversity and beauty of the disabled community.

Through colour and canvas, her work discourses around disabled people who live in a world where they are fighting for basic needs to be met – basic care, basic access, tolerance, acceptance, and visibility. The mental health impact of navigating this is huge. Her artwork seeks to address visibility. As disability activist Laura Hershey once said, “if you don’t see us, you don’t think of us”.

But the works explorations go beyond that.

 While tolerance and acceptance are things that we need, they alone are not enough to combat all of the harm caused by shame, ablism and othering. For that, different bodies need to be celebrated! Which is one of the many reasons why Beth is deeply passionate about celebrating disabled bodies, in all their delicious diversity!

As a 2024 Squeeze Box residency artist, Beth displayed her work for the first time beyond Instagram, in a shopfront at the heart of Paignton

Follow Beth’s practise here: https://www.instagram.com/beth.staples.paints/

    Email: beth.staples.paints@gmail.com

Projectyed on a pale wall is a window desktop showing a virtual world and an avatar. the world is made up of pink sky, rainbows and colourful mushrooms. The character has brown hair, a pink top and yellow trousers

1.     The background is a light sage green. Aaron is in underwear and painted in purple. Large, dark green monstera leave protrude from behind their wheelchair.

2.     A figure in underwear facing away, showing a back with scars that curves with severe kyphosis. The figure is painted in vivid pinks, and it surrounded by a wildflowers in a meadow of fox gloves and daisies.

3.     Beth is posed nude in her wheelchair, with one hand in her hair, and the other flung in the air joyously. The figure is painted in muddy oranges and her wheelchair is painted in black. The background is a light yellow and decorated with yellow ochre drips, and green and blue splashes. 3 sunflowers are emerging from behind the figure, with more yellow ochre drips coming off from the sunflower leaves.

4.     Becks is sat face on in her wheelchair, with both her arms flung in the air in celebration. Both the figure and the wheelchair are painted in pinks, and had tattoos on her chest, arm, thigh and calf. The background is painted in turquoise and behind her is a huge bright yellow sunflower.

5.     The figure is nude and standing with their walker. The walker is black and white, and the figure is painted blue with turquoise hair. The background is a swirling of pinks with a pattern of red hearts, and the colour of the red hearts matched the colour of the psoriasis dots decorating the lower half of the figure.

6.     A femme figure. The figure is facing sideways, gently embracing herself, with her heard tilted slightly forward. Her hair obscures her facial features and tumbles down her back to her waist. Her body is painted in blues, her hair in magenta, and the background is black, as is she is part of the milky way. The whole painting is covered in stars.

7.     A femme person painted in her underwear in her wheelchair is resting on a chunky knit blanket. In the painting the figure is painted in purple, and surrounded by yellow daffodils, with a purple butterfly resting on her green wheelchair.

Yudi Wu

Yudi with yellow headphones, a black t shirt and pyjama trousers wavs her hand in front of a monitor. They are surrounded by black material, half-drunk coffee cups, dirty laundry and other debris.

In the lobby of Exeter Barnfield theatre on the way to the Squeeze Box, Yudi performed an installation throughout the day called I MUST ALWAYS FUNCTION!!!

I'm always productive. I'm always sociable. I must always function.

I'm never productive. I'm never sociable. I will never function.

Yudi describes themself as both a 'hyper-local Community Arts Practitioner', and an 'extremely online Creative Technologist'. Their work often explores queerness, immigrant identity, neurodiversity, and the idea of being an ‘artist’, with radical accessibility and interactivity being the heart of their practice. Outside of their explorations into live art, they often work with immigrants, young people and queer people on community arts projects; or, create visuals and interactive experiences using projection, Unreal Engine, AR and web.

Yudi’s “I MUST ALWAYS FUNCTION!!!” is a live art piece inspired by the ADHD masking experience, and the national shortage of ADHD medicine. In this durational performance, they presented a masked, almost dissociating life of ‘rainbow and cookies’ with a cute virtual character in a pink, fantasy world in Unreal Engine - while their physical self is situated ‘repulsive’ reality of my messy dark room and an overwhelmed mental state. For an entire day, while their virtual self maintains a happy image on a big screen for the outside world and talks in an AI voice, their physical self lies in a mess, operating the virtual self with a mouse and keyboard as if they were playing a game.

You can find them on Instagram: @yuekonpotato & check out their website: yudyw22.myportfolio.com

Philip Robinson & Luca Saunders

Philip and Lucas are using the residency support to develop a new theatre piece exploring themes of the night, dreams and running away

Tarrin Vane