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I’m coming out…I want the world to know that….

A colorful bubble with the blind/low vision symbol of a person with a cane superimposed on it.  The legs and cane are elongated because of the concaveness  of the bubble.

N.B.: These descriptions were developed from a series of conversations between artist Jessica Skintges Wallach and comedian Lamont Price, The People’s heART’s docent.  Sometimes they choose to write these descriptions in one voice and sometimes they choose to highlight their individual thoughts.  These pieces are a conversation started and they both are very interested in what you see in them and what they make you think about. Please leave comments below.

Jessica: We all have places we are going and once you know access is a right, secured and not a question, we can take on our purpose, come out in confidence, be determined or switch our focus of our determination from safety and accessibility to where we are going and what we want to do when we get there…Where would you go if accessibility and safety were not in question?

Lamont: Determination. We need to be able to discuss the accessibility and safety standards in every place we go. Everyone deserves to feel confident and safe in their surroundings at all times. We can all make meaningful contributions to society if our minds are at ease. This seems like the simplest thing we can do to help push us forward. Again, access is a right for all of us and shouldn’t be determined by our abilities or our skin color or our gender or any other way we identify. People with different bodies don’t deserve less access and safety. They deserve more. The bubble is like a force field of confidence. It cannot be popped. It’s impenetrable.

Jessica Skintges Wallach, I’m coming out…I want the world to know that…., 2022. Digital Photograph. ©Jessica Wallach. All rights reserved.

Jessica Skintges Wallach

artist website

@thebodyisgood

Jessica Skintges Wallach is a Washington, DC based photographer, educator and accessibility consultant. She is an artist with a disability and a disabled artist. As an established portrait photographer, she is making her debut in the fine art scene. She once hid behind her camera and its shutter speed, she now highlights her cerebral palsy using those same instruments. In her project, The Body is Good, she reimagines healthcare spaces as a love letter to the body.

Jessica believes that the art on the halls and walls of healthcare spaces matter. It can provide a respite, induce fright, or go unseen. She aims to empower her viewers. Her photos keep patients company while they wait. They whisper that fundamentally, on a molecular level, the body is good. Her work stands as a constant reminder to staff that their bodies matter as much as the work they are doing. Jessica’s art is for anyone with a body.

Using her Canon camera and Samsung phone as a canvas, she modifies the edges of her lens with stencils to answer the question “what fills us up and how do we move?” The stencils depict the subjects’ profiles, actions, and mobility devices as well as accessibility symbols. She began by employing the designs of other artists and now constructs her own stencils. Along with overlaying the stencils with everyday objects, she superimposes the stencils on to large, colorful soap bubbles

Her work offers a bold statement about the impacts of ableism and how it affects us all whether we are disabled or not. Mostly, her photographs ask us to consider what would a love letter to your body be; if healthcare spaces were such a love letter, could we change health equity outcomes?

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The Body Is Good

The Body Is Good is a collection of photographs by Jessica Wallach centered around the theme of accessibility and inclusion of individuals with disabilities. Her work uses hand cut stencils, light, and everyday objects to remind viewers of the importance of viewing the world through a lens on inclusion.

This collection is the result of generous donations from The Center for Visual Arts in Healthcare at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Other work from The Body Is Good