We were delighted to incorporate the work of artist Lesley Cox into the exhibition. Lesley has for some years been reflecting on the impact of polio on her own family and on families all around Ireland. Lesley generously allowed us to use elements of her Polio Series, which you can read about and see here: https://lesleycoxart.com/earlier-works-3-polio-series/
My Dad, Paddy, had polio when he was a child, at age approximately 8 he was hospitalised for 4 years without familial contact. The experience affected him both physically and emotionally for the rest of his life.
Researching this work, I found many people, now elderly, that had similar experiences to my father. Some were even sent abroad to hospitals for extensive treatment, it affected all of them to this day. The primary reasons for no familial contact were medical, as polio is a contagious virus and the children needed to be isolated, secondly, in Ireland in the 1940s not many people had phones or indeed cars, so contact was difficult
This project grew organically from a small video I shot on repetition, I videoed myself wrapping my foot, this action was one my father did twice a day, every day so that his child sized foot would fit into a ‘normal’ shoe. So, the spark started and I kept researching, this resulted in drawings, paintings, crutch sculptures, a light box of photographs, video and poetry.
Part of my research: a newspaper clipping of a Progress Chart on the children’s condition. Each child was assigned a number and family members would search these listings for an insight into how their child was progressing.
I made contact with lots of people who had the polio virus as children and some were left with lifelong disabilities. Some of their stories were harrowing. They very kindly agreed to send me family photos of them with their parents or siblings. I had one photo of my dad as a child with some of his siblings. I pinpricked around each child in the photo who had suffered polio and when the lightbox I designed is turned on, each child is highlighted, representing that they were there – yet not there – for part of their childhood.
I designed these little wire beds and they were made for me by friends John and Philly Smith. I then made a paper ‘sheet’ for each bed which was pinpricked with the number of each child. I made child sized crutches; one was covered in a supersaturated sugar solution – children were often given the polio vaccination on a sugar lump. Another crutch was covered with all the numbers I could find in newspaper clippings, I wanted to honour each child’s memory on the piece.
