Renowned exhibition to be included in new Northern art show

A Teesside University academic’s internationally renowned work is to be shown as part of a special exhibition exploring Northern England.

Simon Mckeown, Reader in Post Production and Animation, is to display his exhibition Motion Disabled as part of Which Way North – a new exhibition at Newcastle University’s Great North Museum showcasing the heart and soul of Northern England.

Motion Disabled is a digital exploration of bodies and biological pathologies of people who are physically disabled. It explores society’s view of normality and difference as we enter a landscape where the aesthetics of ‘different bodies’ are becoming lost due to advances in biomedical science.

Simon’s exhibition was the first non-medical study of motion of people with different physical gait and his work makes use of motion capture used in film and computer games along with 3D animation to highlight the uniqueness of each person’s physicality.

The installation was created by recording the physical movements of 14 disabled people with conditions such as Spina Bifida, Cerebal Palsy and Brittle Bones. Many of the participants are from the North East region, including performer and writer Pauline Heath. The work was later expanded to include Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.

First shown at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in the UK, Motion Disabled has gone on to be exhibited nationally as well as internationally, including countries such as South Korea, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and the prestigious Smithsonian International Gallery in Washington DC, USA.

Simon, who works in the School of Computing, Media & the Arts, said: 'I was delighted to be invited to take part in the Which Way North exhibition. It is wonderful to see my work featured here in the North East, giving many people across the region the chance to see it.

'The exhibition is increasing the knowledge of the diversity of the human body and it is great to be part of that.'

Motion Disabled will feature in the Special Exhibitions Hall at the museum where the theme is Human Machine Motion. An installation of Richard Hamilton’s artwork Man, Machine and Motion is the inspiration for a celebration of Northern flights of fancy, engineering and nature in motion.

Displaying around 250 items, Which Way North includes the sonic screwdriver from Doctor Who, designed by Teesside University graduate Dan Walker and used by Matt Smith’s Doctor from BBC Studios.

Which Way North is part of the wider Great Exhibition of the North taking place at Great North Museum, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and Sage Gateshead from 22 June to 9 September 2018. For more information on Great Exhibition of the North please visit getnorth2018.com.

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