Bodiness: InSpace
Creative Development and Performance
August 2024
There’s a photo on my fridge of me with my friend Erwin Maas in 2003, at my exhibition opening in New York City. I’ve looked at it many times a day for many years, our young optimistic faces smiling back at me “yep, we are, we’re gonna do it” they say. That image has given me something to focus on to bring this project to fruition. How wonderful it is to now have Erwin here with me to work on this beautiful project together after years of long conversations, dreams and musings about humanity.
That photo makes me feel sad too. I look at it and think “I was pretty then.” I know that’s what all women in their fifties say, but I remember feeling beautiful, intelligent and talented then. I’ve been trying to get back to that Kirsty ever since. However, given the deterioration of my spinal cord, the layers, textures and unrelenting weight of severe disability, and the loss, limitation, and discrimination that comes with it, that wish is utterly futile. I’m never going back to her.
Over the years I’ve contemplated what it means to be free while at the same time very confined. I’ve endeavoured to keep working, despite continual decline, responding to existential questions like “Why this body?” and “Why here?” with colour and mark making in whatever way I can as the ability to use my hands disappeared. What is open to me is the opportunity to build a new sense of self and knowledge of who I am, now, in connection with my inner child. It is very freeing.
Kirsty Martinsen, creator/performer
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Kirsty and I met in New York while both in Grad School - she for visual arts and I for Theater Directing. Already then, she had a great eye for the intersection between the two art forms and a keen interest in performance as well. I remember when she was diagnosed with MS. And I’ve witnessed her journey from an abled-bodied visual artist to a multi-disciplinary artist that pushes herself artistically, physically and spiritually time and time again, showing bravery & risk-taking, not letting her disability stand in her way.
When she approached me in 2016 to collaborate, I knew this was going to be unlike any other project or process I had worked on before. Through our many conversations about art, performance, life and loss, it became clear that this artistic journey and experience is closely connected to Kirsty’s changing body over time and her increasing dependency on others. It’s about art & beauty, a quest for life’s purpose, about physical loss and spiritual growth, about a body that might be imprisoned but a mind that is free.
This project, and Kirsty’s artistry, does not only push the boundaries of the artistic process, interdisciplinary work and what it means to be an artist - it challenges, provokes and inspires life itself and what it means to be human in the face of unimaginable loss. I wanted to thank Kirsty for bringing us all together. After 8 years of collaborating remotely, it has been an absolute pleasure to be working with her, Kate, Sascha & Mark in the inSPACE Development Program so as to create this work-in-progress, pointing towards what we’ve envisioned all those years. I hope our performance will inspire you, the way Kirsty has always been an inspiration to me.
Erwin Maas Director
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Creative Team Credits:
Kirsty Martinsen creator performer
Erwin Maas Director
Sasha Budimski sound
Mark Oakley lighting and projection
Kate Prescott design and costume
Anita Gabrelli assistant
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Featuring Poem:
The Ground’s Generosity by Rumi
The Indian Parrot by Rumi
White Heron Rises Over Black Water by Mary Oliver
Pajarito Colibrí by Natalia Lafourcade
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I want to extend special warm thanks to Sascha Budimski, Kate Prescott and Mark Oakley for being a brilliant team. To Becky Llewellyn and Marty Cielens for their unwavering encouragement and support. Bec Young and Jude Gaffney at Access2Arts, Anita Gabrelli, Molly Hardman, Callan Fleming, Françoise Piron and Kellie Nicole.
Thank you to Arts SA (Theatre) and Richard Llewellyn Deaf and Disability Arts for supporting this project.
This project was made possible through support from:
Arts South Australia + Government of SA, Department of Premier and Cabinet.
inSPACE + Adelaide Festival Centre
Access2Arts
Mosaic
State Theatre Company












"Bodiness" Published article in Canadian magazine FeelsZine Issue 23 How Does Disability Feel?

