Things I Have Learned The Hard Way is a multi-site celebration of the life and work of Lizzy Rose (1988-2022) taking place from 31 March-23 April 2023: An exhibition takes place at four Margate venues: Crate, Limbo, Turner Contemporary and Well Projects. Alongside the exhibition, on Wednesday 12 April One Day I Will Feel My Power, a one-off event, will take place at the ICA in London. One Day I Will Feel My Power will show two of Lizzy’s video works alongside readings and responses from invited speakers from Leah Clements, R A Walden, Abi Palmer, Benedict Drew, Alice Hattrick, Carolyn Lazard, artists who have made chronic illness, neurodivergence or disability central to their work. The event will also be streamed live and hosted online by Wysing Arts Centre. (event duration 110 mins). Sick Artists Club, inspired by the work Lizzy made while in hospital and when housebound, invites people with a chronic illness or disability to celebrate their artwork via our website and through social media.

Lizzy’s death in January 2022, following a long struggle with chronic illness, cut short an exciting, innovative and wide-ranging career. Lizzy lived with a severe form of Crohn’s disease, a chronic autoimmune condition affecting the gut which, in Lizzy’s case, led to intestinal failure, alongside other health conditions. Her worldview was shaped by her experience and awareness of the precarity of life. Whilst Lizzy’s later work directly and politically addressed chronic illness, and how society deals with it, from the late 2000s onwards, Lizzy’s work turned a sharp eye on ‘hidden’ culture, asking the viewer to take notice and showing how by doing so we can affect the systems we are part of.

For full information about the project, including audio description and access guidance see: thingsihavelearnedthehardway.com

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As part of Things I Have Learned The Hard Way, the team behind the project are thrilled to launch an open call for the participatory online exhibition Sick Artists Club, inviting submissions of artwork or writing! This open call is for people who have any experience of chronic illness or disability, mental or physical. People are invited to submit artworks or written pieces that express something about the experience of living with chronic illness or disability.

The team behind the project are aiming to create a gallery of 200 people’s individual experiences of illness and disability, to show how diverse such experiences are. Artworks exploring Depression, ME, Blue Badges for disabled parking spaces, and stereotypical sick girl characters from stories, have already been submitted and are viewable in the dedicated online exhibition at thingsihavelearnedthehardway.com/sick-artists-club-artworks

Artworks can be submitted by emailing a clear photograph or other digital file with a brief artist statement to: kjh@thingsIhavelearnedthehardway.com, or follow the project on social media and post about your artwork with the hashtag #SickArtistsClub.