NATALIE DE SEGONZAC

Artist Statement

The disabled body is mostly missing from art history. I’m interested in exposing disability’s moments; how we look, feel, and move. I used to think my hands defined me as an artist until I discovered my ideas are not limited to what I can physically build. My practice incorporates photography, video and sculpture to explore these concepts, often using my own body/my wheelchair.

Working at the intersection of photography and performance, I investigate what it means to be a person who uses a wheelchair in a world not built with disabled bodies in mind. I have embraced my wheelchair as an extension of myself. She is ultimately my freedom, even if to many she is a symbol of my loss.

Sometimes I feel like a visitor in my own body, a ghost to others who avert their eyes. Yet as time passes, I am increasingly in tune with my physical form. Placing myself in the frame grounds me. An image is not bound by a definition, so neither am I. It allows me to claim my space in this world as an artist, a woman, and a person with a disability.

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