49.5kg
49.5kg began as a response to ableist notions of illness and the romanticisation of caring for a sick loved one. Through a collaboration with my sister, a fully rounded and honest narrative of illness and caretaking is portrayed with the intention of educating and engaging an audience in conversations about carer and disability rights, treatment, and representation.
Collaboration with Georgia Francis
In the 49.5kg project, the Puppet (Percy) came to personify Georgia’s chronic illnesses and her performance with it represents the cycles of struggle, anger, acceptance and exhaustion she goes through. The hardest thing I have experienced as a carer is watching my sister struggle with her diagnoses and the restrictions, pain and upset she feels daily. I felt this was the most important aspect of caring to show. The camera acts as a gateway to my perspective. The idea is that when watching the performance, the audience is seeing through my eyes – for however long they are watching they are the carer.
The puppet (Percy) consists of 108 body parts made using cardboard, newspaper and duct tape. Her joints are made of macrame rope. She weights between 30 – 35kg. She is designed to look like an unconscious body. She can be considered Georgia’s ‘Shadow self’
For any inquiries please contact me on any of my social medias or using this email address: erinhephzibahart@gmail.com
49.5kg
This is the final 49.5kg performance film. It is 27 minutes long and shows the emotional/psychological battle Georgia Francis (my little sister) faces with her mulitple chronic illnesses. The film conceptualizes the cycles of struggle, anger, acceptance and exhaustion she goes through. Towards the end of the film she can be seen physically struggling to control/lift/move with the puppet - these reactions are real - after this performance she crashed and was bedbound for 3 days.
