Sites of Perception, Pam Patterson
A softened bald-headed forward-facing torso - eyes closed – is caught in a moment as she performs in repetition a simple action of covering her eyes with her hands and then opening them. Behind and surrounding, as ground, are soft colours (greens, pinks, purples) and the occasional number or line.
Title: Sites of Perception
Artist: Pam Patterson
Date: 2025
Medium/Materials: Digital video still collage on frosted mylar
Dimensions: 91 cm x 213 cm
Form/Genre: Digital art
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Low vision/Blindness; Interior perception; Chronic pain
Artist Statement:
For over 30 years, Pam Patterson has exploited her life experiences of abuse and ridicule to fuel performances and exhibitions. While trained in the visual arts, she also studied classical and experimental theatre. Patterson screamed in Dada, wept in Chekhov, photographed, made videos, built installations, and drew - making startling connections. These connections deepened through the creation of an arts-informed PhD dissertation. All this speaks to a practice that has been enriched over time and is hence time dependent. Patterson speaks of her work as performative or time-based for time is ever present, built into the making and/or the presentation of the work.
As a queer disability artist, Patterson has produced for various galleries, communities and other settings, works ranging from drawings of her mastectomized breast that accompanied a performance where she ritually reshaped her surgically-altered body for FADO in “Cellu(H)er Resistance”, to “Red Square” presented as performance/video for TorinoPERFORMANCEART International Festival, Italy and as photo for the George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia in which she addressed the impact of repressive colonized institutionalized spaces on “disabled” bodies.
Often bodies marked by disability are said to hold no future: they are empty vessels from which ableism insidiously pushes its agenda. Through a performative practice, Patterson’s disability becomes not only imbued with possibility, but with transformative meaning, value, and desirability.
The “Ocular Occurrence” series deals specifically with how Patterson, as a low vision individual, sees and processes images, adapts in movement while in constant pain, and navigates a profoundly ableist society.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
Composed using Patterson’s medical eye scans (provided by St Michael's Hospital), topographical maps of the many places she lived during the pandemic, and photographs she took of the edges, borders, and boundaries that are difficult for her to see. Video was made with Patterson performing a repetitive action - in acknowledgement of her narrowing vision - and with assistance of other disability creatives.
Rights for this Image:
This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.
Link to Video Work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHWUzPj3sqc
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