Enacting Dream/Always Knitting,
Video Artwork, 2018

Enacting Dreams/Always Knitting is a video work featuring my grandmother as she unconsciously enacts the motion of knitting while sleeping in the hospital, and then, while awake, consciously knits. The unconscious re-enactment of the knitting movement is a result of Lewy body dementia (LBD), a neurodegenerative brain disorder that disrupts thinking, movement, behaviour, and mood. Common in LBD are REM (rapid eye movement) sleep disturbances and sleep behaviour disorder, in which the brain cannot control the body during sleep, leading the person to physically “act out” their dreams.

By placing the video within a walker, the work explores the invisibility of diverse bodies in public spaces. It serves as a reminder to make visible the ways our bodies exist and the need for visibility, access, and understanding.