The "SOME PEOPLE" Essays
How Numbers Perceive & Define Me: It is Difficult for People to Imagine a Life with Paralysis by David McCauley | Edited by Kimberly J. Soenen
(“How Numbers Perceive & Define Me.” Art Installation for “SOME PEOPLE” by David McCauley.)
It is difficult for people to imagine a life with paralysis.
After being paralyzed, it is difficult to adapt to the infinite new limitations on life. Injury affects everybody differently in terms of recovery and capability. There are no set boxes or formats that encompass everybody's Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) or disability experience.
How Numbers Perceive & Define Me demonstrates how numbers are actually the most difficult aspects of life to deal with after an injury occurs in someone's life. The bullet points floating from this typewriter reveal the financial view of my life’s trajectory and the financial distress that my injury has imposed.
What do numbers illustrate about Before and After?
This art installation for “SOME PEOPLE” conjures reflections about, not only having to adapt my own body to a new reality and condition, but the new monetary system that constructs over time after an injury.
This work embodies the mechanized state of our society and other forms of "seeing" objective reality. Predicting my financial trajectory—making it visible and transparent to others—raises awareness about my reality.
I hope my work evokes empathy and understanding, and challenges civilization’s pattern of marginalization and disregard.
ABOUT
David McCauley is an interdisciplinary artist based in St Petersburg and Miami, Florida. Since 2012, he has founded multiple 501c3 organizations such as The Rise Up Gallery, The Little Haiti Laundromat Art Space, and The Wynwood Tour Guide App. Each of these entities have been awarded numerous accolades for their programs which encompass art therapy workshops in the community, studio/exhibition space for artists, and a smartphone based walking tour of the Wynwood Arts District in Miami.
McCauley's contemporary artwork incorporates figurative oil painting, graphic design, typography/language, and fabricated materials. As an artist living with paralysis, McCauley applies various adaptive mark making techniques in the creation of his work while exploring topics of inclusion, universal design, accessibility, and the physical state of the human body.
He is represented by Lanoue Gallery in Boston and his work is held internationally in private collections and has been featured in solo and group exhibitions with such institutions as Art Basel Miami Beach, UBS Planet Art, SCOPE Art Show, Williams-McCall Gallery (Miami Beach), Galerie Lano (Paris), Cheryl Hazan Gallery (NYC), Projective Space (NYC), and The Richmond Art Museum. David has participated in artist residencies at The Art Center South Florida/Oolite Arts (Miami Beach), the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM), the Laundromat Art Space (Miami), Void Projects (Miami), and YO Space (Miami). He is also a two time recipient of the Creative Access Fellowship Award.
McCauley is a Board Member and Ambassador for The Impossible Dream Project, a 501c3 nonprofit organization which creates innovative sailing experiences for members of the disabled community. Through partnerships with the nations’ leading rehabilitation centers, the sailing events reach 1000+ participants annually in more than 20 cities throughout the United States.
Follow David and Laundromat here.