Lizzy Rose

Lizzy Rose (1988-2022) was an artist and disability activist who lived and worked in Margate in Kent, England.

Rose's work explored community, British identity and hidden culture, chronic illness communities online and the culture surrounding them, narrative storytelling, and humour. Her practice included video, photography, ceramics, drawing, writing and curation. , the Barbican Centre , the Turner Contemporary and Goldsmiths , and featured in The Guardian newspaper .

Background

Rose lived in Kent for most of her life and was based in Margate.

After university Rose worked as a gallery assistant at the Turner Contemporary in Margate, Kent. In 2016 she toured Japan to study trends in Japanese art, and became part of the programming team at the Crate gallery, Margate. The same year she became an associate at Open School East art school in London.

Crohn's and impact on artwork

Rose had Crohn's disease. Her work addressed chronic illness, and how society deals with it.

Rose spent an increasing amount of time in hospital from 2010 onwards.

The film, shot on a Super 8,

Hospital watercolour club (2014)

Rose's series ‘Hospital Watercolour Club’ (2014), features observational still life works of hospital wares, depicting a bottle of hand sanitizer, a fire alarm and a mobility grab handle. The watercolour and pencil series ‘You meming about your illness is making me uncomfortable’ (2014) recreated internet memes using humour to process frustrations with societal responses to sickness. Rose began researching critical thinking around the politics of the body, the relationship between the body and technology and to what extend the body affects politics around identity. Her installation The Meaning of the Wild, presented a video filmed in The Ohara School of Ikebana in Japan, in a moss-filled room at Crate. The work is a comical take however, the judge, Mr Justice Jay, said the CCG "failed properly to address" recommendations made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and its current funding policy was unlawful.

On their website, NICE issued a press notice saying "Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) cannot choose not to follow NICE guidance because they merely disagree with it, even where there is no statutory duty to do so, a court has ruled."

Dangerous women

Rose's essay "Exposing Trauma: the post-surgery selfie" was included in the book, Dangerous Women: fifty reflections on power, women and identity by Jo Shaw, Ben Fletcher-Watson and Abrisham Ahmadzadeh.

Exhibitions

Things I have learned the hard way - retrospective (2023)

A retrospective month-long exhibition of Rose's work (31 March - 23 April 2023) was held across multiple venues in Margate - at Crate, Limbo, Well Projects and Turner Contemporary - alongside a live event at the ICA in London, live streamed by Wysing Broadcasts.

An online outreach programme invited hospitalised and housebound artists to share their work and stories.

The time of our lives (2024)

Rose's work was featured as part of the Drawing Room exhibition, 'The Time Of Our Lives'. The Time of Our Lives focuses on the pioneering drawing practices of women artists and their impact on feminist activism from the 1980s until today.