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Intimate Encounters
You are invited to attend the Private View of Intimate Encounters Open 9 - 5 Monday - Saturday A Photographic Exhibition Exploring |
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Intimate ENCOUNTERS
BY BELINDA MASON
A Photographic Exhibition Exploring Sexuality, Disability and Body Image showing at Faith House Gallery, Holton Lee from 14 April – 18 May 2007
Private View Saturday 14 April 11.00 – 13.00
The uncharted territory of sexuality and disability is the subject of a stunning and controversial photographic exhibition -Intimate ENCOUNTERS -by Australian photographer, Belinda Mason.
Featuring 40 people – each of whom worked closely with Mason to provide an intimate insight into their own personality & sexuality – Intimate ENCOUNTERS challenges head-on society’s unspoken preconceptions towards people with disabilities.
Whether the subjects’ disabilities be physical or intellectual; psychiatric or neurological; whether they are Paralympians or Professors -the message is the same: people with disabilities possess sexual impulses just as vibrant and colourful as the next person.
It was in 1998 that the idea for Intimate ENCOUNTERS came to Belinda Mason. While photographing a conference on Sexuality and Disability in NSW, Belinda became aware that although society attends to the needs of people with disabilities, it appeared to be unable to deal with the tangled issues surrounding sexuality. This realisation led to a series of meetings with visiting author Dominic Davies -and was to pave the way for the development of Intimate ENCOUNTERS.
Over the past four years, Mason has travelled around Australia meeting and photographing her subjects often after extensive conversations to discuss and explore their feelings and attitudes towards their own sexuality. In doing so, Mason has created images that reflect the personal emotional journey of people with disabilities by choosing to photograph the intangible – emotion.
Images Include:
An ongoing project, Intimate ENCOUNTERS currently consists of more than 35 images, ranging from a horny little devil with fragile bones, The Little Mermaid with Cerebral Palsy and the Passionate Quadriplegic.
United We Sit L'il Devil A Day at the Beach
Dominic Davies and Lee Adams, London UK Caroline Bowditch, Melbourne VIC Australia Samantha Jenkinson, Melbourne VIC Australia
| Denise Beckwith, Sydney NSW, Australia | Saul, New South Wales, Australia |
Simon Champ, Australia |
“Intimate ENCOUNTERS challenges the hidden (and often-at times not so hidden) myth in our society that only the most glamorous, attractive and successful among us lead active, healthy and imaginative sexual lives”, comments Belinda Mason-Lovering. “It is a myth intonated through images present at every edge of our consciousness. Screened, flashed, flickered and fleshed out through film, print, press, art and Internet -eventually projected from person to person, generation to generation.”
“But then there is the truth. We all have our own, unique sexual journey, mapped out with secret adventure, whispered aspirations, the pain of risk and over riding urge for intimacy. It is a journey that, if fully embraced, determines and moulds our identity and self worth. Ultimately, it's about how we feel about our inner selves that let’s us free each other to lead larger lives.”
Kiersten Fishburn of Accessible Arts, the peak arts and disability organisation in NSW Australia, believes Intimate ENCOUNTERS is an outstanding example of positive, diverse and exciting representations of the many experiences of people with disabilities.
“Rather than focussing on a homogenised vision of the experience of disability, Ms Mason has worked collaboratively with her photographic subjects to present vibrant representations of their dreams, hopes and life experiences,” says Ms Fishburn. “Having spoken to many of the people who have been photographed, it is clear that this has been an empowering experience for them as well.”
The exhibition which has extensively toured Australia and traveled to countries including Spain and the US visits Faith House Gallery Lee before moving to other venues across the UK.
** Please phone if you would like to arrange an interview, more information about the exhibition, or to receive print
quality images.**
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