Deep sea diving ... in a wheelchair Sue Austin

it’s wonderful to be here to talk about

my journey to talk about the wheelchair

and the freedom it has bought me I

started using a wheelchair 16 years ago

when an extended illness changed the way

I could access the world when I started

using the wheelchair it was a tremendous

new freedom I’d seen my life slip away

and become restricted it was like having

an enormous new toy I could whizz around

and feel the wind in my face again just

being out on the streets was

exhilarating but even though I had this

newfound joy and freedom people’s

reaction completely changed towards me

It was as if they couldn’t see me

anymore as if an invisibility cloak had

descended they seemed to see me in terms

of their assumptions of what it must be

like to be in a wheelchair when I asked

people their associations with the

wheelchair they used words like

limitation fear pity and restriction I

realized idly turn alized these

responses and it changed who I was on a

core level a part of me had become

alienated from myself I was seeing

myself not from my perspective but

vividly and continuously from the

perspective of other people’s responses

to me as a result I knew I needed to

make my own stories about this

experience new narratives to reclaim my

identity I started making work that

aimed communicate something of the joy

and freedom I felt when using a

wheelchair a power chair power chair to

negotiate the world

I was working to transform these

internalized responses

to transform the preconceptions that had

so I shaped my identity when I started

using a wheelchair by creating

unexpected images the wheelchair became

an object to paint and play with when I

literally started leaving traces of my

joy in freedom it was exciting to see

the interested and surprised responses

from people it seemed to open up new

perspectives and therein lay the

paradigm shift it showed that an arts

practice can remake one’s identity and

transform preconceptions by revision

affirmed ealier so when I began to dive

in 2005 I realized scuba gear extends

your range of activity in just the same

way as a wheelchair does but the

association’s attached to scuba gear are

ones of excitement and adventure

completely different people’s responses

to the wheelchair so I thought I wonder

what will happen if I put the two

together and the underwater wheelchair

that has resulted has taken me on the

most amazing journey over the last seven

years so to give you an idea of what

that’s like I’d like to share with you

one of the outcomes from creating the

spectacle and show you what an amazing

journey it’s taken me on

it is the most amazing experience beyond

most other things I’ve experienced in

life

I literally have the freedom to move in

360 degrees of space and an ecstatic

experience of joy and freedom and the

incredibly unexpected thing is that

other people seem to see and feel that

to their eyes literally lies herb and

mace these things like I want one of

those or if you can do that I can do

anything and I’m thinking it’s because

in that moment of them seeing an object

they have no frame of reference for so

transcends the frames of reference they

have with the wheelchair they have to

think in a completely new way and I

think that moment of completely new

thought perhaps creates a freedom that

spreads to the rest of other people’s

lives for me this means that they’re

seeing the value of difference the joy

it brings when instead of focusing on

loss or limitation we see and discover

the power and joy of seeing the world

from exciting new perspectives for me

the wheelchair becomes a vehicle for

transformation in fact I now call the

underwater wheelchair portal because

it’s literally pushed me through into a

new way of being into new dimensions and

into a new level of consciousness and

the other thing is that because nobody’s

seen or heard of an underwater

wheelchair before and creating the

spectacle is about creating new ways of

seeing being and knowing now you have

this concept in your mind you’re all

part of the artwork to

you