Voices from the outskirts
Alice Banfield | Damian Healy | Caitlin Howe | Laura James-Brownsell | Rachel Kinchin | Aly Lloyd | Sam Lucas | J Pyrite | Naseem Syed | Jo Jo Vagabondi | Stuart Mel Wilson
Preview: Friday 30th May 7pm
Exhibition continues until 12th July, Open Weds – Sat 11am-7pm
Voices from the Outskirts is a group exhibition of artists and writers who identify as neurodivergent. Chosen from the result of a national open call-out, each artist explores and expresses their sensory, emotional, psychological or physical experiences as neurodivergent people.
This is an exhibition that showcases and celebrates the creativity, depth, and diversity of neurodivergent artists by bringing together works that challenge normative ways of seeing, thinking, and creating.
Voices from the outskirts has grown from an 18-month project called Connect and Flourish, working with various neurodivergent groups across Swansea providing them with the support and skills to explore, create and collaborate.
About the artists:
Alice Banfield
Alice Banfield is an artist based in Cardiff, Wales.
“The forest-mind out there transmits only terror, now, and the only message I can send it is terror, because when exposed to it I can feel nothing except terror!” – Ursula K. Le Guin, Vaster Than Empires and More Slow.
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story Vaster Than Empires and More Slow, the forest is a metaphor for the mind; a forest that is ‘unexplored, unending…’ where we ‘get lost in the forest, every night, alone.’ With this framework, I manifest my own experiences of being autistic into playful characters through a multi-faced practice.
By bringing these characters to life as soft, talismanic portals to my forest The Greylands, I aim to challenge the language around autism and its representation in media culture, as it is often portrayed as a disease that needs to be cured.
Aly Lloyd
Aly Lloyd (b. 1990) is a British artist based in Gloucestershire. Her practice merges digital aesthetics with traditional painting, blending painterly precision and computational influence to create works that feel suspended between the virtual and the physical. By combining algorithmic processes with hand-rendered mark-making, she brings digital textures into the tactile world of paint.
Lloyd’s paintings explore the tension between geometric structure and organic, free-flowing forms, often featuring stylised female figures caught in uncanny, suspended moments that evoke both mystery and autonomy. Through vibrant colour and simplified forms, she challenges visual perception and blurs boundaries between logic and emotion, illusion and reality.
Central to her practice is an exploration of neurodiversity and the autistic experience. Viewing visual communication as her “native language,” Lloyd uses her work as a tool for processing identity, emotion, and sensory input. Her approach balances intuition with control, and explores notions of what is hidden and what is revealed. Drawing on pattern, structure, fine detail and graphic outlines, she crafts compositions that reflect her unique way of seeing and interpreting the world.
Self-taught, with a background in psychology, fashion, and data science, her interdisciplinary path informs a distinct visual language shaped by analytical thinking and narrative insight. Lloyd works from her open studio in Painswick, where visitors are invited to view her work and engage with her evolving practice. Her work has been exhibited nationally and collected internationally.
Caitlin Howe
Caitlin Howe (they/them) is a neurodivergent, queer, Welsh artist based in London but also working across Wales.
‘I am a professional contemporary dancer also working with textiles and visual art. My work is currently focused on creating textural pieces which are interactive and can be touched by the audience, naturally creating movement.
I am concerned with creating accessible, inclusive spaces and have found that one way to start this is through constructing textile pieces. I am personally hyper-sensitive to many sensations including touch, so I wanted to express this through my piece and provide both visual and tactile interest.
My piece is a sensory ‘den’, a patchwork tent with textile pieces inside. I find water, especially the sea, to be very visually stimulating. I wanted to recreate this sensation by playing with textures and patterns that look or feel like water. I am looking to create different tactile experiences so you can truly immerse yourself in the artwork.
The idea for this piece came from my experience as a dancer which influences the desire for interactive art and a focus on the senses. I am interested in how the art is interacted with, and I would love to see the choreographies that emerge from interactions between people and fabric as they move in and around the piece and the piece moves with them’.
Damian Healy
Damian Healy is a synaesthetic writer and artist from South Wales whose work explores perception, memory, metaphysics, and the limits of shared reality and language. Drawing from his experience of synaesthesia, his practice engages with the ontological and philosophical implications of altered perception — asserting that neurodivergent modes of experiencing are not deviations, but alternate and equally valid ways of knowing. His work challenges the assumption of a singular, objective reality, suggesting instead that truth emerges through broad multiplicity.
His installation E.S.P: Extra Sensory Perceptions attempts to directly render one of the synaesthetic forms he experiences: scent-colour synaesthesia — a form in which smells induce vibrant, animated shapes that materialise in space. The photisms in this exhibition are not aesthetic interpretations, but simulations of a perceptual reality in which scent is intrinsically coloured, dimensional, and geometric.
Damian is currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing at Cardiff University, where he explores sensory-rich, conceptual and hybrid forms.
J Pyrite
J Pyrite (any/all pronouns) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Southampton. They have a passion for abstraction, a lifelong devotion to poetry, and a fixation on acrylic paints. Their favourite themes to explore are trauma and recovery, the mythologisation of lived experiences, and resonant patterns in individual and collective consciousnesses.
J is autistic with ADHD and long-term mental illness, and they believe that these identities are impossible to separate from their life, or from their art. Creativity, much like neurodivergence, is something that defines J wholly but not exclusively – and so they have fused their creative practices into mixed media. Poetry supplements the visual art, and vice versa – they are, as the title puts it, inseparable.
Rather than focusing on a singular aspect of the neurodivergent experience, J has tried to encapsulate the variety of emotions they associate with the core of who they are. Eclectic and almost psychedelic, “Inseparable” is a juxtaposition of paradoxical states that necessarily coexist within J’s mind. They cannot speak for every voice, but they can make their own loud and clear, and urgent with the necessity every neurodivergent person has to be seen and understood.
After graduating from the University of Southampton with a BSc in Mathematics in 2023, J has had visual art exhibited at God’s House Tower, the Southampton City Art Gallery, ZEST Arts Collective, and Guildhall Square. They have also written and self-published a book of all the poetry they made from 2021 to late 2023. The book is called “The Lizard’s Dance”, and it is a dance of defiance in the face of the author’s disorders, but also in celebration of the colourful and textured life they lead.
Jo Jo Vagabondi
Jo Munton ran from the echo chamber of the sculpture studio and the stuffiness of the average gallery into the street. And she never returned. Until now.
Twenty odd years ago Jo took their degree in sculpture and creative writing at Bath, and an ability to create three dimensionally into the animated art that is puppetry. She began performing in the streets and at festivals before migrating onto the stage. She soon realised ( after a few international festivals in Spain, Croatia and France) that there wasn’t a great deal going on in puppetry in UK at that point . So she took herself of to Seville, then Barcelona to work for a Theatre in Education companies (El Buhu, IPA productions) where she continued making her own work as well as touring with other companies:- Los Kaos, “the tribe” European tour/ Clogless lobster, “a key in the sea” tour in Russia and Siberia, Struts and frets, “ y Mabinogi” Welsh castle tour.
She discovered how to build big, specialising in giant puppetry, choreographing and running big teams for: Festive Road, Walk the Plank, Welsh millennial centre,
Jo really likes parade, not necessary as a spectator sport. She loves the ritualised essence of moving through the landscape creating storytelling processions – the spectacle of the giant juxtaposed with the Intimacy of story. CADW commissioned her team to create the story Twrch Trwyth at Dinefwr literature festival.
She has also been commissioned by Wateraid, to create a show about a droplet of water, by Powys county council to create about waste management, by CADW to create a show as the storyteller in residence at Bryn celli ddu archeological dig and Applause touring to create a show about how precious our cherries and orchards are.
She also considers herself a Tour guide to creative collective adventures. She has created many workshops for Arts Council Wales, Newtown county council centre of alternative technology – Earth art, This is Corby, The place, Newport, Love Oswestry.
She is a dedicated Welsh learner and performed Popeth yn Cymreag at the national Eisteddfod.
In this exhibition she will be exploring Neurodiversity through the language of the body, Ideas about being In control and questions about who Is pulling your strings.
Laura James-Brownsell
‘After receiving my autism diagnosis, I graduated from UWTSD with a MArts in Creative Writing. As a member of ASDES, an organisation dedicated to supporting and empowering autistic individuals, I have become passionate about using my skills as a creative to relate to and educate autistic people and their allies about our experiences.
I began writing my poem ‘Perspectives’, after watching ‘Inside Our Autistic Minds’ presented by Chris Packham. The poem initially began as a way for me to describe my experiences as an autistic person. However, after watching ‘A Kind Of Spark’ by Elle McNicoll and reading the novel that the series was adapted from I redrafted the poem, fuelled by anger at the views that some of the characters expressed, particularly, as someone who has experienced patronising ableism since childhood, the idea that autistic people in general aren’t capable of living independent and fulfilling lives.
I created an audio recording of my poem to emphasise that these are my words, describing my experiences and encouraging non-autistic people to acknowledge and revise any harmful opinions that have about autistic people. My speech impairment made this difficult but as a multi-disabled person I believe that this adds an extra layer to the poem. Just because an autistic person might have other disability/ disabilities that make it harder for them to communicate or because they struggle to communicate in ways that a neurotypical would expect, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t worth listening to.
The colours of my poetry display were chosen for their meaning within the autistic community. Gold is the colour of our pride in ourselves and our diagnosis while red is the colour of the passion and love that we are capable of’.
Laura became curator for this exhibition through ASDES’s close working partnership with Elysium Gallery.
‘I wanted to create an opening for neurodivergent people to showcase work that focused on their neurodivergence/s in the hope that this will lead to more opportunities for us’.
Naseem Syed
Naseem Syed is a Welsh-Persian, neurodiverse multidisciplinary artist, craftivist, and director of Ziba Creative. Rooted in her mixed heritage, Naz’s sensory, tactile practice includes Azadi installation, workshops and events—in solidarity with the Women, Life, Freedom revolution and Pom Pom People, Radical Kindness movement, spreading joy and nostalgia. Her work weaves together the threads of people, places, and stories, creating a patchwork of community.
‘For this exhibition I will be presenting Den of Dreams, a mixed textile installation that reflects my lived experience with neurodiversity. Late diagnosed with ADHD at 43, I’ve navigated grief, shame, and self-discovery. It came with the realisation of how hard the everyday things are and were for me, especially growing up. I wanted to tell my inner child all the things I needed to hear. ‘Behind every late diagnosed woman is a little girl who knew this world was never made for her, but could never explain why.’
Inspired by Hafez, “The words we speak become the house we live in,” the den symbolises positive energy, nostalgia and play. Drawing on childhood memories of the dens my sister and I built at my grandad’s home, recreating a space of safety, imagination, and belonging.
Made from reclaimed materials including; my old clothes, pom pom flowers, beaded affirmations, ribbons and blankets. At the heart lies my grandad Miguel’s Persian rug, surrounded by shimmering light and reflective materials. A small embroidered blanket whispers, “You Belong Here.”
Our words shape the foundations of our inner world and the energy we project. I aim to celebrate the glimmers of light within me, embracing my worth and belonging. I am more than a label or a hidden disability—I choose to embrace these parts of myself, not mask them. I am piecing together the patchwork of who I am, leaning into radical self-care, and creating my own sanctuary.
This piece was commissioned by Disability Arts Cymru’.
Rachel Kinchin
Colour. Texture. Wonkiness. Fuzzy boundaries. Spicy tears. Joy. Play. Chronic pain. Brain-gut health. Hypermobility. Bruises. Falls. Dyspraxia. Falling into a hyperfocus hole. Lost connections. Things left unfinished. A big bag of tangled wires. Misplaced objects. A buzzing, fizzing neon light that won’t switch off after dark…
After 20+ years supporting artists and arts organisations, Rachel is now exploring her own emerging arts practice following years of post-GCSE fail imposter syndrome. Creative block and burnout were constant companions. Her artistic energy felt trapped under societal expectations and neurotypical norms. During her MA in Arts Practice: Arts, Health and Wellbeing—and after an ADHD diagnosis at 44—she began experimenting with colourplay, drawing, zines, collage, print, sculpture, puppetry, digital illustration, installation and co-creation.
Creative ritual, connection, wellness and play are now central to her practice. Reconnecting with her artistic brain has been both joyful and challenging—exposing vulnerability and undoing ingrained narratives around productivity and worth.
Her abstract work plays with motifs: juggling hands, dyspraxic limbs managing multiple ideas, wonky tits, visible guts (hello IBS), tangled neural pathways, spicy tears of joy and pain. These are metaphors for complex emotions and embodied experiences. Harnessing her hyperfocus and allowing herself to fall fully into ideas helps manage anxiety and fuels wellbeing.
Rachel has exhibited in Cardiff and Indonesia, runs creative wellness sessions, and is Lead Artist in Residence with PWSH and Neurospicy Play Dates at Hypha Studios, Cardiff.
She also works freelance as an Inclusion Consultant, Practitioner, Access Support worker, and is part-time Audience Development Manager at Chapter. She is Artistic Director of PWSH. These roles feed into her creative world, grounding it in care, access, and community.
For Voices from the Outskirts, she has further explored playful, textured, chaotic 3D work that celebrates the joy, tension and contradictions of being wired differently.
Sam Lucas
Sam Lucas is a British artist, and a Northern Bridge Consortium fully funded PhD researcher at University of Sunderland in ceramics and wellbeing focussing on Neurodiversity and body awareness. She has exhibited her work internationally with Contemporary Galleries and highlights were exhibiting at Art Genève 2020 with Taste Contemporary Gallery and AWARD The headlining exhibition at British Ceramics Biennial 2019.
Sam is a ceramic sculptor creating contemporary ambiguous, figurative forms. They are conversation pieces with dark humorous undertones and describe how displacement is not only geographical but can be within one’s own skin. She takes some inspiration from her own lived experience and also the observations of others. The clays therapeutic and expressive qualities help her to explore and articulate feelings of social awkwardness and displacement.
She does not make pretty things they are conversation pieces exploring uncertainty and vulnerability and the weight of being. She is encouraging the viewer to be curious and question their own relationship to their body and how others may be different from them, or the same.
Sam’s creative practice has always revolved around the relationship of the self and world through the lens of the body by creating ambiguous, figurative forms.
Stuart Mel Wilson
Stuart Mel Wilson is a British contemporary artist born in Gateshead. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne. He is known for his large-scale drawings and immersive installations that explore themes of perception, language, and the human condition. A graduate of Goldsmiths, University of London, Wilson’s work blends traditional mark-making with found objects, creating playful yet thought-provoking environments. His installations often engage with philosophical ideas and personal experiences, including his dyslexia, to challenge conventional communication and interpretation. Wilson has exhibited widely across the UK, as well as internationally.