On Our Doorsteps: Rachael & Dave by Tiitu Takalo
Transcript
The artwork that you can see here is by Finnish graphic novelist Tiitu Takalo. It is one of 6 large artworks presented on 3m x 1.5m billboards around the Sweet Briar Marshes Nature Reserve in Norwich as part of a nationwide project called On Our Doorsteps.
The artwork is made up of a series of 13 smaller pictures, presented across three rows. In each one we see a scene depicting people and landscapes represented in delicate line drawings colours with atmospheric watercolours that capture the soft tones of the landscape and weather conditions. It is clear that this is an artwork that has been make carefully by hand, then reproduced much larger to fill the 3m wide billboard.
In the first image, in the top-right of the artwork, we see four figures and a dog in a landscape of yellow, orange and brown grasses and other low plants. To the left is a woman in a brown coat and hat, jeans and boots. This is Rachael. She is a white woman with long blonde hair and she is kneeling on the ground holding a camera with a long lens. Close behind her is her guide dog, Biggie. We can only see his back legs. To the right we see a figure wearing a light blue anorak sitting in a wheel chair. He has his back to us so we can’t see his face yet, but this is Dave. Leaning on the handles at the back of Dave’s wheelchair is Denzil. He’s wearing a blue jacket, grey trousers, a brightly coloured scarf and a pinky orange bobble hat.
Rachael says: I have no vision in one eye and no central vision in the other. What vision I do have only works very close up.
In the second image we see a close up of the head of a plant. It has several brown stems leading off one main stem and you can see where there would have been flowers in the Summer. The centre of the picture is really detailed, but away from the centre, all the colour and detail is washed out and blurry. The text above reads: I take close-up pictures. But I can only tell if they are any good when I get home and load the shots on my computer.
In the third picture we see Rachael again, close up this time, only head and shoulders. She leans towards the roughly textured bark of a tree trunk, touching it with her hand. She says: ‘First I’ve got to find things to take the pictures of.’
In the next image, Rachael is now crouching down next to a tree, looking away from us and pointing her camera at another plant. Biggie stands beside her, also apparently inspecting the plant. We can see that Biggie is wearing a harness. And now, to the right we see Dave for the first time. He’s facing us in his wheelchair. He says: ‘Nature just turns the noise down. Turns down pain levels, anxiety levels, all of it. That’s what I love about being in nature.’
In the first image on the second row, we see a close up of Dave facing us, but looking to his left. He’s got his hood up now. He’s a white man. He wears glasses and has a beard and moustache. ‘Mental and physical health go together’ he says. ‘If you don’t have good opportunities to boost one, the other goes down too.’
Next we see Rachael and Dave, both head and shoulders. Rachael is a bit closer to us. She says: ‘The fact that Norfolk Wildlife Trust really worked with us on making the place physically accessible also makes it feel mentally welcoming to me.’
We look down at Biggie next to Rachael’s legs and boots in the next image. He is a Labrador with a yellowish coat, a pink nose and soulful eyes. We can see how his harness goes round his body and we see Rachael’s hand holding him. The text says: ‘I feel more part of the community here than I do in a lot of other places.’
The final image in the second row shows Rachael holding her camera, Dave and Denzil, pushing the wheelchair. Dave smiles as he says: ‘I got the feeling that we matter. We’re not just on the side, a burden on society. We’re part of society and that’s an important feeling to have.’
In the first image of the bottom row, we see a close up of Rachael’s face, with the faded browns and oranges of the landscape behind her. She looks wearily down at the ground and says: ‘When you’ve got a disability for different reasons, your life can be sometimes really hard, very unpleasant, stressful and just miserable.’
In the next image she is looking up. We see Dave moving away in the distance in his wheelchair. Rachael says: ‘And if a place is accessible to you, you are as equal as you can be to somebody who doesn’t have a disability.’
Then we see Dave, in his chair, his hand on the control, moving left to right. He turns to us, saying: ‘If there are good, accessible paths, it’s good for everybody, for parents with buggies, people in wheelchairs or limited mobility.’
In the final image we see Rachael with Biggie, Dave, Denzil walking in the distance, and now we see another figure with them in grey clothing. Is this Tiitu, the artists of this work, who has been with them on their walk around the nature reserve? They walk together through the atmospheric landscape of yellow and green grasses, grey, distant blue trees and the grey bushes whose white blossoms show that Spring is on its way.
This was one of Tiitu Takalo’s artworks for On Our Doorsteps. She created two other artworks with people from the community around Sweet Briar Marshes. A writer, Zakiya Mackenzie, has also created three new text-based artworks for billboards on the reserve.
The project was developed and produced by We Live Here, in collaboration with the Norfolk & Norwich Festival. It is funded by Arts Council England and the Finnish Institute.