Community
Created by Rain
Offcial Photographed Piece and Artist Statement
Rain Lyons
Community
Medium: Multi-medium
The Academies at South Mountain
This piece is about neurodivergent people and the community we created to support each other. Though, through questioning neurodivergent people about how they feel about themselves, and they’re experiences within the community, Many expressed that while they understand they’re accepted by the community, the nature of all the disabilities and mental illnesses under the label ‘neurodivergent’ being so vastly different from each other doesn’t always allow them to truly connect with anyone else. That even while meeting people living with their same conditions, the different experiences and perceptions isolate them even more. The line on the piece “Isolation. Even in a community it feels isolating” summarizes what those individuals told me and what I want to portray with the piece.
When planning for this capstone project we were told to think about cultures; from many different communities or ones we are apart of ourselves. About who and what makes up those communities. I chose a community not many people acknowledge or know about, that being the neurodivergent community. The term neurodivergent refers to individuals whos brains are wired differently than neurotypical people. Any type of mental condition, disability or illness is counted as neurodivergence.
For this capstone I wanted to represent the community in any way possible whether it be about the positive or negative aspects or experiences. To accurately display an entire community it was suggested to me by my instructor, Mr. King to crowd-source the project. I agreed, followed through and this was the result.