In Conversation | Abi Palmer & Alice Hattrick | Granta

In Conversation

Abi Palmer & Alice Hattrick

The authors discuss the practice of writing about illness, explore the idea of crip time and critique the value of medical labels.

Abi Palmer

Abi Palmer is a writer, artist and filmmaker. Her artworks include Crip Casino – an interactive gambling arcade parodying the wellness industry and institutionalised spaces – which has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, Somerset House and the Wellcome Collection. Her debut book Sanatorium (Penned in the Margins, 2020) is a fragmented memoir, jumping between luxury thermal pool, and blue inflatable bathtub. It was shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize. In 2020 she was awarded an Artangel ‘Thinking Time’ grant to address the current pandemic. Her current work explores themes of access, isolation and the urgency of climate change, through attempting to capture, distil and convey the entire outside world into small ritualistic performances and sculpture for her indoor cats.

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Alice Hattrick

Alice Hattrick’s criticism and interviews have appeared in publications such as frieze magazine, ArtReview and the White Review. Alice’s work has most recently been included in Whitechapel Documents of Contemporary Art: HEALTH (ed. Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, 2020) and Mine Searching Yours (Forma, 2020). They are the co-producer of Access Docs for Artists, a resource for disabled and/or chronically ill artists, curators and writers, made in collaboration with artists Leah Clements and Lizzy Rose. In 2016, they were shortlisted for the Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize. Ill Feelings is their first book.

Photograph © Jasper Fry

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