GEORGINA PENDER

Artist Statement

I love meeting new people; learning what they like about their community, what they may want to change about it and how they came to be within that community in the first place. My mum was exactly the same, working as a learning support assistant working one-to-one with the pupils who had severe physical disabilities in the very same school I attended. Consequently, I learnt from an early age that people with additional learning needs and/or difficulties do not get given the same opportunities in what is still a neurotypical person’s world. This is not just something I came to realise through observation, I lived it as someone with additional learning needs who felt like they were always looking from the outside in at peers.

I wanted to help in giving people more opportunities, it is therefore only natural that I found my calling working with people in communities and schools, with a specific interest in working with people who have additional learning needs and disabilities. The year before university I stopped making art. When I went back to making, I realised I did not enjoy the art I made since it was for others not for myself. Over the last three years, I have found the art I enjoy making for myself - it follows no guidelines or rules. I love using a little bit of everything, coming up with new ways to add interactive/sensory elements to transport viewers.

I want those who experience my work to find a way that they can engage their creativity for their own pleasure, to be able to feel like this is a space for everyone where no one is on the outside looking in.

Bydd y dulliau rhyngweithio sydd gennyf gyda'r cyhoedd, boed hynny drwy weithdai creadigol neu sgwrs, yn llywio'r deunyddiau y byddaf yn eu defnyddio yn y mannau y byddaf yn eu defnyddio a'r gosodiadau y byddaf yn eu gwneud. Gan gasglu effemera a gwrthrychau o gymunedau a thrwy wrando a rhannu, mae cyd-greu yn ffordd rwy'n anelu at greu darnau personol ond ar gyfer gwaith cydweithredol.

Rwy'n credu yng ngrym creu gyda'n gilydd i adeiladu cymunedau cryfach a mwy cynhwysol, er mwyn gwella profiadau a safbwyntiau ein gilydd drwy sgyrsiau a chreu. Rwyf eisiau i bobl sy'n profi fy ngwaith greu cysylltiadau â'r bobl o'u cwmpas gan gysylltu drwy eu gwahaniaethau lle, yn y pen draw, fy nghelf i yw eu celf nhw.