Elevate Digital Arts Exhibition 2025
fullexhibition
The Joy and Anxiety of ADHD Thought Process
Artist: Vicki Salmi
Medium: Video
Duration: 2 minutes 11 seconds
Something about yourself
The Joy and Anxiety of ADHD Thought Process is a film that forms part of a larger body of work by artist Vicki Salmi, encompassing hours of video documenting and animating a physical collage of painting, print, textile, sculpture, and book art. Created over the course of her university experience as a working-class artist in her fifties, this body of work reflects an intense period of artistic production following her transition from office clerk to art student. This shift, alongside the realization of her ADHD diagnosis, led to an overwhelming creative outpouring, resisting conventional editing practices and embracing the inherent chaos of executive dysfunction. Decision-making, particularly the challenge of containing and selecting elements of her work, is central to this film. The work, along with its physical installation, serves as a container for this unfiltered creative expression—a space that rejects the constraints of decision-making while maintaining a sense of control. The film immerses viewers in a manifestation of Salmi’s thought processes, a relentless and all-consuming flow of ideas. Movement and gesture play a significant role in her practice, yet they are often difficult to share in public settings. This film captures a rare instance of the artist’s hands performing the structured and repetitive act of folding concertina books, offering a moment of containment within the larger framework of creative chaos. The accompanying subtitles are generated from the layered soundtrack, reflecting the overwhelming experience of overthinking. Salmi’s practice is also influenced by external sensory stimulation, such as music, which she uses to crowd her senses while working. She encourages viewers to engage with the film in a similar way and has included the playlist that accompanied the creation of the work.
Vicki Salmi is a neurodivergent, working-class visual artist who began her art education in her fifties after spending most of her life working as an administrative clerk. Recently diagnosed with ADHD, this discovery has become the driving force behind her practice—a dynamic exploration of multiple mediums with a strong focus on mark-making. Her work responds to the overwhelming influx of information and the restless activity of the mind, channeling these experiences into paintings, prints, textiles, and digital media. A prolific maker, Salmi works on multiple pieces simultaneously, allowing them to develop in symbiotic relationships where each informs and influences the others. Her process is both a retreat and an act of rebellion—an escape into moments of instinctive, automatic, and spontaneous expression. Her work exists in a continuous state of transformation, undergoing cycles of deconstruction and reconstruction. Layers accumulate, forms shift, and compositions evolve into an orchestrated chaos of maximalist abstraction, guiding the eye while never allowing it to settle. At its core, Salmi’s practice captures the energy of an overactive mind in motion, balancing chaos and control, spontaneity and structure. Her work celebrates the boundless possibilities of visual expression, embracing the fluidity and dynamism of the creative process.
www.vickisalmi.com
As The Floor Shifts
Artist: CoDa Dance
Medium: Video
Durations: 8 minutes 49 seconds
As The Floor Shifts is a short episodic film reflecting the way that many people experience symptoms and side effects of their neurological illness. Often people living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are said to be ‘experiencing an episode’ at times when their symptoms are exacerbated. The piece was created over several years with a number of Lived Experience Consultants (LECs) who have influenced what we say to audiences about their experience of living with a neurological disability. The LECs collaborated in this research, fed into concept development, shared testimonials, tested episode experiences, and supported us to make artistic choices on which was most impactful and accessible.The episodes have been created using various virtual reality techniques, including Motion Capture and Volumetric Capture. The film combines contemporary dance with creative technologies to create emotive and thought provoking visual experiences. During this project, we worked with industry leaders in digital creations and performance to develop and refine As the Floor Shifts, including Marius Mattesan (PlayLabz), Bertie Sampson (Immersive Me), Marian Sauders (Collusion), Matt Bartram (Cave & Sky).
Performers in the work included Jodie Honeybourne, Claire Lambert, Maiya Leeke, & Nikki Watson. The soundscore was designed by Jeph Vanger. It was filmed at DanceEast, with support from their in-house technical team.
CoDa is an award-winning, socially driven, female-and-disability led company. We have over 10 years’ experience in creating professional dance productions and delivering bespoke participatory events predominantly with and for neurologically disabled participants (i.e. anyone who has had a brain injury leading to disability) in diverse arts, community, and health settings. Our work is now used by the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, London, as part of their innovative treatment for patients and we have shared our practice at high level conferences and seminars including the 1st International Meeting of Arts Prescribing in Healthcare, Greece 2024, and 5th EAI International Conference on Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Education, Cambridge University, 2023. In late 2024 we were shortlisted for an Unlimited Commission, partnering with Sadlers Wells. Though we need to wait until March to find out if we've been successful, we are thrilled to have to this stage. CoDa was founded by neurodivergent choreographer Nikki Watson. When her mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and she discovered a lack of movement classes for those with MS, she set up the company to fill this gap and challenge the stereotypes and expectations of those with neurological conditions. Neuro-disabled people are at the heart of all CoDa’s work. We believe everyone can dance. Our mission is to bring dance to those who cannot access it, and to tell real stories, celebrating life in a creative way that makes a difference.
Biblically Accurate Wheelchair
Artist: Jake Cowx
Medium: Digital Illustration
The famous 'be not afraid' as a response to the visage of celestials can be compared to the general public's reception of visible disability - wheelchairs and mobility aids are often overlooked, those using them are spoken over or ignored, and a wide berth is given as if afraid to highlight the person's additional needs. As such, the need for someone approaching disability to confront such aids can be uncertain, and often deeply frightening. Confronting these fears is something many struggle with, and the need for another genre of faith cannot be understated.
Fine Art - Accessibility/Disability
Artist: Jake Cowx
Medium: Digital Collage
Reflecting on the historical accessibility and representation of disability within the arts, this recreation of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer (1665) is part of an imagined series on rethinking the 'picture' of disability over the centuries.
Inside Your Skin
Artist: Jake Cowx
Medium: Digital Collage
Cowx uses the physical pain of disability to the emotional pain of having your experiences minimised by dismissive wording in the general world and the medical sector. This illustration highlights his personal pain 'pressure points', that are emphasised internally and externally that relate to misrepresentation of chronic illness through phrasing, both intentionally and unintentionally.
Jake Cowx is a multi-disability artworker and a graduate of the Illustration & Animation BA (Hons) program at UCA. His practice explores multimedia as an empathetic approach to fostering open discussion. While he has a particular interest in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, as well as healthcare-related multimedia arts, he is passionate about engaging with any project that tells a compelling story. Cowx has had the opportunity to collaborate with charities such as Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he has also run workshops alongside their psychology team. These workshops focus on promoting creative expression for young people with serious illnesses, emphasising the transformative power of art in healthcare settings.
White Rock
Artist: Farida Yesmin
Medium: Video
Duration: 4 minutes 43 seconds
White Rock is a performance for camera that reflects on the artist’s feelings of rejection and social ostracism, in both her country of origin and the one she has been trying to settle to find safety and stability. In the UK, Farida has found that her search for equality would inevitably clash with the reality of racism, ableism and a climate of hostility towards disabled migrants like her, who are finding it hard to navigate the system due to lack of support, knowledge and mastery of English. From the coasts of Folkestone, just opposite the sharp white cliffs that face the turbulent waters of the English Channel, Farida is sitting on the ‘white’ rocks of an empty beach - her lone, naked, brown body staring towards an empty beach. There, she can finally scream - showing the aggression and vulnerability of a wounded animal.
Farida Yesmin, (fka Kajoli Ilojak) was born and grew up in Bangladesh. She studied Fine Arts at Dhaka University (Bangladesh, 1998) and at Visva-Bharati University (West Bengal, India, 2003), froum which she holds a Masters’ degree. In her ever-evolving artistic practice, she experiments with different media (from photography and drawing to live performance), exploring issues of gender, body politics and cross-cultural identity through a feminist lens. Through her art, she engages with the cultural expectations and ideological restrictions that she confronts as a woman, as an artist and as a refugee. The artist negotiates language barriers whilst staging her ‘otherness’ using her body, voice, painting and gestural mark-making as means of communication.
www.instagram.com/faridayesmin_liveart
A Room Of Our Own
Artist: Jude Adams
Medium: Video
Duration: 6 minutes 40 seconds
Drawing from personal experience, A Room of Our Own is a show created by Jude Adams in 2023 initially to be performed live and tells a story through music (self penned), narration and movement/dance. It reflects on living a closeted life, and progresses through the challenges and the joys of hope, of health, liberation and finding our own place (and safe space) in the world, accepting of and irrespective of our gender or sexual orientation. The title is a nod to Virginia Woolf but here giving voice to freedom of expression for the LGBTQ+ community. While being highly relevant today, it is set in the early 1980s and as such, is also a very personal piece of social history for Jude that she feels is important to share especially for future generations. This short film is a snapshot of the whole story highlighting some of those aspects through some of the music, narration and dance. Jude has emerging plans to develop a complete version of A Room of Our Own to be performed more broadly and through various creative outlets including film.
Jude Adams is a 65 year old gay woman and a multi-media artist. Although always creative, Jude came to art much more intensively as a result of chronic illness with a diagnosis of M.E. in 2011. Having only started singing in public in 2009 that was curtailed by her health quite soon after but through journaling Jude found herself writing poetry which became song lyrics, creating musical doodles in her head. Despite never having played an instrument and through a lot of online learning and help from patient coaches she started to develop of serious body of work. Since 2016 she has written, produced and released 3 albums of original music, written a “memoir of sorts”, and created a range of visual art including photos and collages. Jude’s work is eclectic and optimistic, and a rallying cry for change. It tackles issues of identity, of finding and being true to one’s self, of freedom of expression and of mental and physical health.
www.judeadamssings.net
Made on mmm