The exhibit features multiple elements, including 15 short films, each 3 to 4 minutes long, featuring Bacon having a personal conversation with each subject.
“It's just me with the subject, and we're just talking and they're being very vulnerable and honest and absolutely wonderful,” said Bacon. “Beautiful things were said from every single subject, very inspiring.”
In addition to the short films, Bacon has also created “motion portraits” for each of the subjects.
“Motion portraits are video portraits where I have a person so comfortable in their own skin that I just tell them, ‘I just want you to be.’ And so we do about a five-minute take, no cuts, no talking. They're literally just existing and being just who they are in front of the camera,” Bacon said.
Bacon has utilized this art form before but said this is the first time he has used it in this way by projecting it onto a wall.
“So you'll come in to the exhibit and it's like, ‘OK, it's a portrait. No, wait a minute, it's a video, because there's very slow movement and the eyes will open and shut.’ They do head gestures. They may have a slight change in expression,” Bacon said. “And then we're going to have a small theater set up. So then you can watch the short films as well.”
“I want it to be very eye-catching, as I do with all my work, but I wanted it to be very bright. So you walk in and it almost feels like you're being lifted,” he added.
Bacon said the project came to be after Abilities First President and CEO Maggie Rollwagen reached out to him, hoping to collaborate on a piece featuring the people her organization serves.
“Abilities First is the Senate Bill 40 Board for Greene County,” Rollwagen said. “In 1978, the citizens of Greene County voted to pass a levy to serve the gaps in the unmet needs of our local community outside of what Medicaid and the state can fund for individuals with disabilities.”
Rollwagen explained that Abilities First helps identify the community's unmet needs for individuals with disabilities and uses the funding it receives to address them.
“I was checking my voice messages and there was this message from Maggie on my phone at work,” Bacon said. “It was a really beautiful message about her passion and compassion for the people that she's serving and that these stories needed to be captured and presented to create not only a conversation, but a conversation that actually has an impact on changing how we as a society look at the topic of disability. And so I got done with the message and I was like, ‘This is awesome.’”
“We knew Randy's artwork would help tell our story. We wanted to share what it is that our folks can do. Let's stop giving the pity approach and the negative and making that voice so loud,” Rollwagen said. “Let's shine a spotlight where it belongs, which is on these accomplishments, this talent, of these people. Businesses are better when people with disabilities work in them. The research is clear. So we wanted to tell that story with Randy in a different way than what we have seen previously.”
Instead of promoting pity, Rollwagen said she hopes the exhibit will tell a different story.
“There's been a story perpetuated based on deficit of people with disabilities for a long time,” Rollwagen said. “I mean, there have been wonderful pioneers working to make this better for a long time, so I don't want to speak in finite terms. But there was definitely a stereotype and a trend of focusing on the deficit and this pity approach, which has been antiquated and off-putting.”
“I want people to walk in, be immersed, you know, magnetically be pulled to the different people. And one way I wanted to do that was with a very simple brightness even though this is a topic that may be perceived as heavy,” Bacon said. “I think the messaging there is that if you have somebody in your life who does have an ability challenge, it's actually a great thing. Life just has to be done differently. I've heard that ‘I can do pretty much anything. It's just my route to be able to do it is different than what you would do. I want people to see me for what I can do and not for the limitations.’”
For more information on Abilities First, visit their website, Instagram and Facebook pages.
For more on Bacon and his artwork, visit his website, Instagram and Facebook pages.
