Gigi Malherbe Hellfire vacation

This work was created in December 2021, at the end of my second year at National Art School in Sydney. It explores the way that living with a disability affects my ability to create and perform daily tasks, by using costume as a way of obscuring and creating new identities as a form of emotional protection against adversity. The painting references imagery from Lithuanian folklore and festivals, such as imps, demons and masks, as a way of exploring cultural history. This helped in creating imagery based around the idea of travelling through hell and back, which represents the confrontation of internal and external battles that I face.

Gigi Malherbe, 2022