Em Kramer

Studio Art and Anthropology major

Growing up, telling stories was my favorite thing to do. It's been a long-running joke in my family that you shouldn't get me talking about what I did that day or something that happened 5 years ago because I can talk for 10 minutes straight about absolutely nothing and everything at the same time. The creation of each story is like writing a love letter to the world. 

Today, telling stories is still my favorite thing to do. The snick of a camera shutter or the scrape of charcoal on paper fills in the empty pieces of that love letter that I just couldn’t seem to finish before. 

Mishandled Diagnosis

series of videos, mixed media collage, paper, wood

Jewett Gallery

I have the agency to pick and choose which stories within my life are added to the narrative that my art creates. For this exhibition, I chose to tell a story shared amongst myself and so many others. I’ve lived with a chronic disability my entire life, with its effects making themselves known more significantly during different periods of my life. The origins of the works in this exhibition can be traced back to different aspects of this disability, from chronic fatigue to hearing loss to joint instability to emotional upheaval. Something I found incredibly important in putting together all of this work was taking the story from the personal level to something that could be shared amongst many. I wanted the different pieces to open up a conversation on the multifaceted lives of those with disabilities, with all the joys and pains that come with it. 

Every layer of my exhibit is built to tell a different story, it comes together to represent both myself and a greater community. The physical setting of the chair and table are meant to embody the feelings of both comfort and discomfort, and how those two can be found within each other. The inability to control the volume throughout the different videos challenges the viewer to embrace the work no matter their ability levels. Thus, each of the works in turn attempt to play the line between embracing the body and spirit and escaping it. 

Why Don’t You Listen? takes audio from hearing tests and combines it with images of right ears, including my own. Using a combination of grayscale and color images, I’m flipping the narrative of disempowerment that comes along with a hard of hearing diagnosis, and allowing these ears to blossom back into color. First|Last Dance takes its origin from a childhood of dance and becomes a toast to the liberating nature of mobility aids on a disabled body. Escapes and the associated collage and papers are a physical demonstration of the stress and trauma of countless diagnoses and procedures and rediagnoses, but the work also stands as a depiction of the strength and fortitude it takes to keep holding on when all your edges have quite literally been torn away.

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