Colin Hambrook
Colin Hambrook has been editing Disability Arts Online in one form or another since 2002. Increasingly he has been posting some of his own artistic output... as well as commenting on the work DAO is engaged with...
Colin Hambrook is on his way down the mental health road
Another day, another poem, dragging through the ether. There are lots of twists and turns down the mental health road; no easy solutions, just lots of conundrums and silence scattered with unhealthy,...Comments: 3
Colin Hambrook puts on a man suit
I am pleased the way that the blog section of DAO has taken off in the past few months. Having the opportunity to publish work continues to be a pleasure that I am very grateful for. When you've...Comments: 0
Colin Hambrook publishes another disability poem
In the 1990s I put together a visual arts exhibition called 'Dreams of the Absurd' which got shown in various galleries in the UK and abroad. It was an extension of a series of large-scale...Comments: 3
A poem on experience of ECT from Colin Hambrook
I try hard when writing poetry… sometimes too hard. Scanning this drawing into the computer somehow gave it an even more oppressive feel. Playing with the contrast made it that much...Comments: 8
6 July 2010
Colin Hambrook gets inspired by film-maker Jean Cocteau
I've been thinking of posting some of my poetry for some time now. Poetry is one of those things I do to keep going when life gets tough. I love Jean Cocteau's 1949 retelling of the story of...Comments: 10
DAO reaches places no other web journal does - according to editor Colin Hambrook
I feel strongly about the sense of being part of a worldwide disability community that DAO invokes - and which guides my sense of editorship of the journal. The engagement that DAO stirs in its...Comments: 4
Colin Hambrook comments on Outside Centre's 'Stamps of Disability' website
Outside Centre is a disability arts oganisation, working within the Social Model of Disability, whose primary objective is to celebrate and promote disability and disabled people through arts and...Comments: 5
Colin Hambrook continues in the shadow of Ian Dury...
I saw the last show of Fittings Multimedia's Raspberry at the Clocktower, Croydon on 14 May. It was (almost) everything I hoped for with some great songs; a fantastic cabaret-style performance from...Comments: 3
Colin Hambrook continues to be mad...
Living with disability can get extreme sometimes. For me, living in the wake of so-called 'schizophrenia' has meant a lifetime of juggling the darkest emotions like tennis balls. My relationship with...Comments: 5
Colin Hambrook is mad!
I apologise for not writing for a while. I've been falling out of trees - Oaks mostly - under the misty moon-breathe of a schizo heart. No dwelling place where explosive smiles burp on every street...Comments: 1
Colin Hambrook responds to Tony Heaton’s talk about his sculpture as part of Shape’s ‘Animate’ programme on 4 February 2010
I’ve known Tony Heaton since 1993. He’s always been very enigmatic, passionate and down-to-earth in his approaches to the projects he takes up. I came into the disability arts movement in...Comments: 1
Colin Hambrook wishes the good ship dao and all who sail in her a Happy New Year!
2009 was a year of extreme highs on the dao front and lows in terms of dealing with personal impairment issues. Big thanks to all our writers and bloggers for helping us bring disability arts online...Comments: 6
Colin Hambrook reflects on the Rethink Parliament programme
Dao has been working with Parliamentary Outreach, Rethink and artist Rachel Gadsden on a project which looks at the relevance of the parliamentary process to people who have been through the mental...Comments: 0
16 October 2009
Colin Hambrook reflects on the 2nd Artists Debating Identity event at Shape
On Thursday 15 October Shape held their second informal conversation, led by Michèle Taylor - this time targeted at performing artists. Recognising the current lack of a platform for disabled...Comments: 6
Colin Hambrook needs to learn to take it easy ...
I’ve been at sixes and sevens the last couple of weeks. You know how it is – sometimes impairment can get the better of things. I count myself lucky to be in a position where I can do...Comments: 3
16 August 2009
Colin Hambrook drops in on the Edinburgh Fringe
I’ve been away for the past week, staying in Dunbar with friends. I thought I’d pop in on the Edinburgh Festival to see what disability-related arts I could find in the theatre section. From...Comments: 0
Artists Debating Identity
In the 1990s LDAF used to organise debates, which, truth to tell, became circular arguments centering around the question of what is Disability Arts? We somehow never seemed to get beyond celebrating...Comments: 9
12 May 2009
Getting into the groove ...
I have been slowly getting myself back into the groove since getting back from Australia. Big thanks go to Jon Pratty for managing DAO in my absence. I saw some terrific work in Australia, met some...Comments: 1
22 March 2009
Art of Difference
I attended a lot of cabaret performances at Art of Difference. The first reaction to being in Gasworks Arts Park was that it was like being at the Dada-Fest, which takes place in Liverpool every year...Comments: 0
Touch Compass: The Sleep of Reason begets Monsters
Harmonious Oddity – the triple bill by Touch Compass presented over the first three nights of the Art of Difference Festival began with a piece of Dance for Camera called The Picnic made in 2003....Comments: 4
14 March 2009
Touch Compass on the radar
I was very excited at the prospect of seeing Touch Compass, having met several of the artists from the programme whilst I was in Auckland where the company is based. Tim Turner, Rodney Bell and...Comments: 0
Art of Difference Festival: Melbourne 2009
Art of Difference is a disability and deaf arts festival produced by Gasworks in South Melbourne between 10 - 21 March 2009. I have the privilege of attending the first week of the festival and...Comments: 0
Momentum09
Momentum has been a difficult occasion for everyone involved. Philip Patston described his experience of it as being like driving a ten ton truck and suddenly hitting black ice and careering out of...Comments: 0
24 February 2009
Auckland here I am ... just about
I am writing from Auckland, New Zealand. I'm lucky enough to have been invited out here for a shortened version of Momentum09 - set up and run by Philip Patston of diversityworks. It's been great...Comments: 0
1 December 2008
Baptism of fire
In many ways I feel as if I was born into Disability arts. I was drawn me into it with a baptism of fire and haven't looked back. At the time there weren’t many mental health survivors in...Comments: 0