Things I Have Learned The Hard Way
Things I Have Learned The Hard Way
A closely cropped self portrait of Lizzy, her head and shoulders partially submerged in the bath with closed eyes. The water is mauve and full of petals. Her left arm appears to be connected to a drip.
Things I Have Learned The Hard Way

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Things I Have Learned The Hard Way is the first retrospective of the Margate-based artist and disability activist Lizzy Rose (1988-2022).

Lizzy died in January 2022 following a long struggle with chronic illness, cutting short an exciting, innovative and wide-ranging career. She 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. 

Lizzy’s later work directly addressed chronic illness and how society deals with it. Indeed, from the late 2000s onwards, her 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.

Exhibited  across four venues in Lizzy’s hometown of Margate, Things I Have Learned The Hard Way presents a comprehensive review of artworks made from 2008 to 2022, spanning moving-image, works on paper, sculpture and digital work. The participating venues are Turner Contemporary, LIMBO, Crate & Well Projects.  

Alongside the exhibition, on 12 April, One Day I Will Feel My Power, a one-off event curated by Lizzy's friend and collaborator Leah Clements  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 artists, writers and speakers: Leah Clements, R A Walden, Abi Palmer, Benedict Drew, Alice Hattrick, and 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),

We have an Open Call for artists with experience of chronic illness or disability to submit artwork to be part of our online exhibition, Sick Artists Club, coordinated by artist Katie Hogben. The Sick Artists Club online exhibition will present the diverse experiences of people who have a chronic illness or disability. 

This project is supported by Arts Council England, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and hundreds of people who donated to the project crowdfunder. 
Katie and Matthew have so many people they owe thanks - see a full list here. 

ID: A grainy film photograph of Lizzy with long bleached hair in profile on Margate beach. In the background we see wet sand and the sea in the distance with the end of the pier to the right of the shot.
A closely cropped self portrait of Lizzy, her head and shoulders partially submerged in the bath with closed eyes. The water is mauve and full of petals. Her left arm appears to be connected to a drip.

↓

Things I Have Learned The Hard Way is the first retrospective of the Margate-based artist and disability activist Lizzy Rose (1988-2022).

Lizzy died in January 2022 following a long struggle with chronic illness, cutting short an exciting, innovative and wide-ranging career. She 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. 

Lizzy’s later work directly addressed chronic illness and how society deals with it. Indeed, from the late 2000s onwards, her 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.

Exhibited  across four venues in Lizzy’s hometown of Margate, Things I Have Learned The Hard Way presents a comprehensive review of artworks made from 2008 to 2022, spanning moving-image, works on paper, sculpture and digital work. The participating venues are Turner Contemporary, LIMBO, Crate & Well Projects.  

Alongside the exhibition, on 12 April, One Day I Will Feel My Power, a one-off event curated by Lizzy's friend and collaborator Leah Clements  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 artists, writers and speakers: Leah Clements, R A Walden, Abi Palmer, Benedict Drew, Alice Hattrick, and 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),

We have an Open Call for artists with experience of chronic illness or disability to submit artwork to be part of our online exhibition, Sick Artists Club, coordinated by artist Katie Hogben. The Sick Artists Club online exhibition will present the diverse experiences of people who have a chronic illness or disability. 

This project is supported by Arts Council England, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and hundreds of people who donated to the project crowdfunder. 
Katie and Matthew have so many people they owe thanks - see a full list here.