Naomi Morris
Revealed/Concealed attempts to deal with frustrations of feeling invisible. My form is revealed gradually as thick viscous paint falls and curves around the contours of my body. It clings to the skin, drawing energy downward. Layer upon layer, the pigmented gloop slowly envelops me. The colours merge to uncover and expose my body as it emerges from the darkness. The liquid pools; drips hesitate before being sucked back up. The gloop then conceals the image, time is bent backwards and the form retreats from sight echoing the need to hide, become withdrawn and move back inwards.
As an autistic woman I wear a mask daily. I have to hide aspects of myself to survive and feel acceptable to society. My true identity is hidden. The piece aims to explore the sense of isolation and loneliness, the layers of misinterpretation, feelings of being overwhelmed, the sensory hell and disablement that occurs as a result of having in a late-diagnosed neurological and invisible condition. I have learnt that the presentation of oneself to the world is a risk. What appears on the surface is not always the truth. There is a constant flex of what is unfolding or being folded up.
