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Elena Macdonald

‘I have always found bedsides in the crip, black disabled world, to be transient spaces, spread across endless locations. My photograph represents this confusion of location, and lack of permanence.’

 

Open artwork
Portrait photograph of Elena Macdonald, who is smiling warmly at the camera in a close-cropped shot. Elena has shoulder-length wavy orange hair and large blue eyes and lightly freckled skin, and wears semi-translucent eyeglass frames, a light brown fleeced coat and an orange, black and white silk or satin scarf. In the background of the photograph, a beach, blue water with light waves and a distant shore with gentle hills and a town are visible; there is also a corner of another person who has straight brown hair and a striped coloured jumper on
Portrait photograph of Hannah Turner, a light-skinned woman who is facing the camera and looking into the lens. She is seated on a bed, which has a striped pink and red pillowcase and another yellow pillowcase behind it, and cream-coloured sheets. The bedroom is painted off-white with double cupboard doors, an upholstered grey bedhead and fluourescent printed artwork on the wall behind her. Hannah has straw-coloured hair worn at shoulder length, and black-blue lined tattoos on her upper arms which are visible from under her white t-shirt and knitted blue vest with a pink smily face across its collar. She is also wearing cream-coloured tracksuit pants and a silver ring

Hannah Turner

‘Bed is where I am worker but then patient, prisoner. Here I perfectly arrange myself so the faded grey headboard could in fact be a sofa, so my greasy hair, creased pyjama shirt appear as a slick bun, office casual.’

 

Open artwork

Mali Hermans

‘I guard this space and the objects beside it – the objects that make up my shrinking world – with love and protection, resisting the vulnerability I am so often coerced into.’

 

Open artwork
Portrait photograph of Mali Hermans, who wears a relaxed smile with closed lips. She is looking into the camera. She has shoulder-length straight hair that is light brown in colour, and fair skin with slightly rosy cheeks and a light fringe. In the background are light-coloured walls – one flat and one bricked – with a peach-coloured light illuminating one side, casting the outline of some indoor plants in shadow
Portrait photograph of Jessica Knight, who is pictured smiling cheekily whilst looking off to the side of the frame, from behind and between several lush leafy green plants in a covered space that might be a nursery. Jess has light skin and short brown hair, and wears dark brown spectacles, a choker necklace with a donut-shaped pendant, a striped blue and white tee rolled up at the sleeves, and blue denim overalls. With her left hand she is lightly pinching a leaf of a plant in front of her

Jessica Knight

‘During the day I keep the machine under my bed and out of sight. I’m separating the day version of myself from the night version. A little bit of self-delusion never hurt anyone.’

 

Open artwork

N.S. Sibanda

‘Peer pressure has already mapped out the appropriate performative self-deprecation in penance’

 

Open artwork
An angled photograph taken by the artist from their mattress. The mattress is covered in a rich mustard-brown woven fabric like a heavy linen or cotton. In the blurred background against a well-lit off-white wall, the image of a rectangular bedside table can be seen with a bowl, drink bottle, candle and other indistinguishable objects on it
Portrait photograph of Jase Cordova, who is pictured at an outdoor table of a café cradling a grey cup of coffee between their fingers, held up to their chin, while they smile with eyes closed. They have light brown skin and prominent forearm tattoos depicting a wax-sealed envelope over flowers, two avocado halves with heart-shaped pits, and a few intertwined stems and leaves and flowers on their right arm. They are wearing a check-patterned cotton dress in muted autumn-blue-white-purple tones, and have thin-framed white spectacles and straight brown hair

Jase Cordova

‘My bed is my desk, and my bedside is my filing cabinet, dining table, rubbish bin, and medicine cabinet. It’s a mountain of both the necessary and the forgotten.’

 

Open artwork

Tori Hobbs

‘The glitter lamp I’d inherited from my childhood bedroom, its books, snow globes, frames and toys were still lovingly arranged, nearly a thousand kilometres away from where they’d once been.’

 

Open artwork
Mid-shot portrait photograph of Tori Hobbs. Tori is facing the camera with a warm smile. They have long, curly black hair and brown skin, and are half in shadow of mild sunlight. They are standing in front of a red, pink, white, blue and yellow painted mural or wall, and are wearing a black top and a blue denim jacket with several badges, as well as a moon earring and a star earring, and clear-framed spectacles
Portrait photograph of Jo Newman – a fair-skinned person who is seated in front of a pale brown background wearing a blue denim jacket over a maroon and yellow knit sweater, with eyeglasses and bright red shoulder-length hair cropped flat across its fringe. They are smiling widely and looking slightly to the side of the camera

Jo Newman

‘Most days it was a struggle to walk down the hall to the bathroom, but digitally I could visit snow-capped mountains, tropical islands, and expansive, shimmering deserts.’

 

Open artwork

Michelle Roger

‘A little piece here.
A little piece there.
My day broken into unconnected activities.
Partial activities.
Things started and discarded.
Only to be picked up an hour or two later and tossed aside once more.’

 

Open artwork
Portrait photograph of Michelle Roger, a light-skinned person with straight shoulder-length grey-brown hair swept back from her face. She is looking at the camera with her eyebrows slightly raised and a neutral expression on her face. Her chin is resting on her knuckles. She is wearing a blue, black and white printed top or dress with thin stripes and floral motifs in its pattern. In the background there are autumn-coloured trees and an informal outdoor structure as you might see at an event or a large garden

Participate

Feeling inspired? Share your own photo of your bedside on social media with the hashtag #ByMyBed.

Photograph looking out of the gallery at the sign for By My Bed. Printed lettering about the exhibition is affixed to a movable wall

Visit the exhibition

By My Bed is also an in-person event, held at No Vacancy Gallery (in QV Melbourne) from 15 June to 25 June 2022 during the Emerging Writers’ Festival.

 

Find out more