Commissioned to create new work for DaDaFest International 40, responding to the theme of ‘Rage’, artists Faith Bebbington and Dr Janet Price launch ‘Pimp my Wheelchair’. Faith and Janet are ‘pimping up’ our prosthetics, dressing up crutches, wheelchairs, hearing aids (and more) with sculptures inspired by plants that use defence mechanisms to express rage against attack. From the thorn that pricks, to plants with leaves that close against touch, the new sculptures celebrate their challenge to ableism in the world.
A sculptural installation amongst the plants at Sefton Park Palm House, featuring a series of new sculptures created by Faith Bebbington in collaboration with Janet Price will be available to view throughout the festival month. The plant inspired sculptures utilise a range of mobility aids combined with 3D elements created with waste materials.
We invite you to join us for this special launch event to be the first to experience their work through a thought provoking procession, and get an insight to the story behind Pimp my Wheelchair hearing from the artists.
Access: BSL interpretation will be available. Accessible parking will be available on the paved road leading directly to the palm house. If you are a wheelchair user, please book a seated ticked and indicate this when you book. Please highlight any other access requirements when you book.
Cost: FREE but you must reserve a ticket for the 11am launch event via eventbrite.
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About Faith Bebbington
Faith's artistic practice initially stemmed from having cerebral palsy, a disability that made her curious about how people and animals move. Faith explores this through figurative sculptures playing with balance, the process of falling, and capturing sequences of movement whether human or animal. In 2014 Faith's artistic perspective shifted radically after surviving ‘terminal’ cancer! Faith stopped working with fibreglass resin as her main medium and focused on more sustainable, environmentally friendly ways of working, particularly re-using plastics by breaking the component parts down to then reconstruct them.
Faith studied sculpture at Winchester College of Art, set up a Liverpool studio in 1993 and now works across the UK creating recycled public artworks and exhibiting sculpture. Faith's clients across the UK include Veolia, ITV Wembley.
Dr Sandra Hiett described Faith's approach saying “Faith's practice as an artist has embodied authentic and deep rooted commitment to celebrating her sense of self, with sustainability, disability, gender and social justice at the heart of her practice. As an artist working with community groups, schools and cultural organisations, Faith gives voice to people who are often unheard...”
About Dr Janet Price
Dr Janet Price is a disabled queer feminist, based in Liverpool, UK with links to Taranaki, New Zealand. Janet is an activist and writer, who has a commitment to using art as a way of building intersectional connections and communities across disability, gender, sexuality, race & class.
Janet’s love of art and commitment to activism led her to become a member of the board of DaDaFest until 2023 where she built a strong commitment to and understanding of access in Disability Arts. Whilst there, Janet also worked with previous Chief Exec Ruth Gould to organise a visit of UK Disability artists with a coalition of disability artists/activists in India/South Asia.
Over many years, Janet has been interested in and worked with textiles, creating fibre art pieces that relate to the depths of our natural world. Increasingly Janet draws upon the history and reworking of old textiles, looking to their origins in the wild and to colonial impacts upon fibre production, drawn to fibre art that challenges the injustice of power and its intersectional unwrapping.
Janet sees art as a primary route towards community, to new ways of understanding and experiencing the world. Disability, race, gender/sexuality, class and nature are at the centre of the disruption our perspectives need, and social justice is where we will find our answers.
About DaDa
DaDa is an award winning and pioneering disability arts organisation based in Liverpool with international reach and impact. Founded in 1984, we were one of the first disability-led arts organisations in the UK and an integral part of the campaign for greater equality and access for disabled artists across the arts sector.
About DDFI40
DaDaFest International returns 8th-31st March 2025 to celebrate DaDa's 40th Anniversary and this time we are coming with ‘RAGE: A Quiet Riot’.
DDFI40 will showcase work by disabled artists that captures all shapes and sides of rage. From the internal quiet frustrations and righteous rage, to overt injustice and activism, DDFI40 will explore disability rights, disability arts, access, ableism and ‘Rage’ in an explosion of creativity.