Daisy Lafarge, courtesy of the artist
Creative Scotland and Shape Arts are delighted to announce the recipient of their collaborative disabled artist bursary, Daisy Lafarge.
Daisy received a £5,000 artist bursary and will travel to the Venice Biennale in late September 2024 to undertake a week-long research trip, hosted by Shape Arts in connection with their landmark Disability Arts Movement exhibition Crip Arte Spazio: DAM in Venice.
Daisy is a renowned interdisciplinary writer based in Glasgow who graduated in Fine Art from Edinburgh College of Art in 2016. The form and content of her work is diverse, but it is often research-led and propelled by the merging of unlikely subjects, such as science, romance, metaphor and ecology.
Over recent years Daisy has been experimenting with new ways of integrating her written and visual practices - including video work, performance and painting. This opportunity to visit Venice, meeting other artists and drawing inspiration from a range of contemporary practices, comes at a pivotal moment in her practice and will be the starting point for the development of new ways of working in the future.
This artist bursary is a new collaborative project between Creative Scotland and Shape Arts and is supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland. It recognises the need for more disabled voices within an international art context.
David Hevey, Shape CEO and DAM IN VENICE curator said “Shape is delighted to work with Creative Scotland and extend the opportunity to engage with our DAM IN VENICE project to Scottish artists, thus creating new and wider connections and championing new creative voices. We look forward to supporting Daisy through this opportunity.”
Kirsteen Macdonald, Visual Arts Officer at Creative Scotland said “We are excited to announce this unique opportunity for Daisy Lafarge to undertake new research in parallel with Shape’s incredible exhibition at the Venice Biennial this year. It will be fascinating to see how the experiences of this trip impact her work in future by supporting her to experiment and test new ideas inspired by her encounters in Venice with time back home reflecting on what this brings to her creative practice.”
Background
Daisy Lafarge is an interdisciplinary writer and artist based in Glasgow. Her publications include the poetry collection Life Without Air (Granta 2020), a novel, Paul (Granta, 2021), and a nonfiction book on intimacy and infection, Lovebug (Peninsula, 2023). Her visual work has been exhibited at Tate St Ives, Talbot Rice Gallery, Serpentine Galleries’ online programme and elsewhere, and acquired by the University of Edinburgh Art Collection.
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports culture and creativity across all parts of Scotland, distributing funding provided by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery. Further information at creativescotland.com. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Learn more about the value of art and creativity in Scotland and join in at www.ourcreativevoice.scot
Shape Arts is a disability-led arts organisation which works to improve access to culture for disabled people by providing opportunities for disabled artists, training cultural institutions to be more open to disabled people, and through running participatory arts and development programmes. It was founded in 1976 and works nationally and internationally to champion disabled artists. https://www.shapearts.org.uk
Crip Arte Spazio: DAM in Venice is a huge, joyous, and exuberant celebration showcasing the dynamism, wit, and grandeur of the Disability Arts Movement (DAM). The DAM aligned art with the fight for rights, broke barriers, and ultimately aeected changes in UK law, while making great art about doing so. As if an electric demonstration of crip creatives have arrived in Venice, the exhibition explodes in the venue, with huge protest banners, cartoon panels, large-scale projected artist films, photography, graphic novels, and campaign merchandise. Exhibiting artists include Keith Armstrong, Terence Birch, Tony Heaton OBE, Jameisha Prescod, Abi Palmer, Ker Wallwork, Tanya Raabe-Webber, Jason Wilsher-Mills. The exhibition is curated by David Hevey, Creative Director of Shape Arts. It runs until 30 November 2024 at CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo on Guidecca, Venice. About the exhibition | Shape Arts
Venice Biennial 2024. The 60th International Art Exhibition titled Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere will take place from Saturday 20 April to Sunday 24 November 2024, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, the first Latin American to curate the International Art Exhibition. Adriano Pedrosa (Brazil) is currently the artistic director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand – MASP, where he has curated many exhibitions, including Histories of Dance (2020) and Brazilian Histories (2022). The Biennale also includes 88 National Participations in the historic Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale and in the city centre of Venice, and 30 Collateral Events promoted by non–profit national and international bodies and institutions, in several locations around Venice. They oeer a wide range of contributions that enrich the diversity of voices that characterizes the central exhibition.