DRIVE-THRU

In the installation entitled DRIVE-THRU, Nadia Markiewicz focuses on the potential inherent in non-normative bodies, as well as their emancipatory and transformative capabilities. The main theme of the show is the real-life story of a couple with disabilities who decided to get married in the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas. They experienced considerable difficulties while getting out of their car before the ceremony. The owner of the chapel noticed this and was inspired to create a chapel where people could get married without stepping out of the car. This brief, ordinary event links the themes that interest Markiewicz: the changes occurring in the world, the emergence of pop-cultural spaces, an autobiographical element – the wedding of her own parents, the spirit of being on the road, the theme of celebrity. Markiewicz builds upon the concept of the misfit used by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson and introduces the figure of a rebel to her narrative. “Not fitting in” turns into a force triggering transformation, but also alludes to a failed romantic relationship of a disabled body and its material surrounding world.

The exhibition flips the current discourse on disability upside down. Markiewicz shines a light on a situation in which the majority of society benefits from a solution created for people with disabilities, emphasizing the liberating power coming from rejecting normative solutions. It thus celebrates the hidden potentials of disability.

text: Ewelina Muraszkiewicz
translation: Joanna Figiel

Carolyn

As I told you, I urgently had to travel. I visited my first best friend Carolyn, who lived in Florida. She gathered a collection of items connected to the topic of death that I wanted to photograph. The archive is not only important because of our relationship, but also because it is a product of disability culture.

Carolyn studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and worked in fashion show production. She was part of what could be considered Goth subculture. She was diagnosed with Juvenile Onset Huntington's Disease and knew she had few years to live and that her body would become less and less able. Last week I got a phone call that it was a matter of days until she passed and got on a plane to visit her in hospice. But also, to document the objects she curated on her way. 

I am sending a work-in-progress selection of five images from a much larger pool. It is a collaborative project between me and Carolynn Josephine Goracy – Fashion curator. Bone collector.

Best wishes,
Nadia

Nadia Markiewicz was nominated to Futures Talents by Fotograf Zone in 2024. 

Co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union, FUTURES is a platform to increase the capacity, mobility and visibility of it's selected artists and to bridge the gap between emerging and established artists.

IMAGES CAPTIONS

1–9 | Nadia Markiewicz, DRIVE-THRU, Poland, 2022
10–15 | Nadia Markiewicz, Carolyn, USA, 2024