NCAD Conscious Makers
Glass and Ceramics
NCAD Conscious Makers is a collective group of students studying glass and ceramics at the National College of Art and Design. They consider fine art and design and apply a variation of processes combining new and old ways of working.
Marie O’Rourke is a Dublin based artist, currently completing a BA (Hons) in Fine Art with a concentration in Glass, at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD). Her recent research project entitled, Walkers, intimately explores some of the emotional and physical experiences relating to my ‘invisible disabilities’ as a result of a spinal cord injury (SCI). Most of Maries work engages techniques of kiln-forming and hand painting with glass enamels. Maries work has been shortlisted for the Future Makers Awards (2017). She has exhibited her work in Zozimus Gallery, Dublin and BIFE in Bray. She also completed a HND in Fine Art at BIFE, Bray.
This research project entitled, Walkers, intimately explores some of the emotional and physical experiences relating to my ‘invisible disabilities’ as a result of a spinal cord injury (SCI).
Normally, when SCI is discussed the image that comes to mind is one of person in a wheelchair. While this response is often a true representation, there are some people with SCI who are not wheelchair bound. In Orthopedic circles these SCI persons are labelled as ‘Walkers’. Walkers are the persons who have sustained an SCI but have walked again, in spite of being told they would never do so.
For all external appearances Walkers appear as able bodied as the next person, even to family members. This perception is more often than not a direct contradiction, of the lived reality of the Walker person. The invisible disabilities associated with being a Walker can often make life extremely stressful and difficult. This is often further compounded by the fact that the Walker person does not wish to reveal their disability.
To authenticate the autobiographical content of the work I create glass canvases taken from a plaster cast of my back and the Harrington Rods that were used inside my body to straighten my spine. The processes of my daily journaling have informed the enamel hand-painted script on the glass surface. I have selected excerpts of thick descriptive language which express my raw and often vulnerable thoughts in order to better convey living with this condition in the hope of raising social awareness of persons who are known as Walkers.
