It’s been an emotional week.

I don’t think I’m alone in having an unconditional love for animals, whereas my love or actual like for humans is (with exceptions) deeply conditional.

Having had more trips to the vet that one would like this week (although an amazing vet – shout-out to MCR vets on The Quays), it’s been a tough one.

Slowly working my way round Greater Manchester over the last 25 years, I’ve been spending the last three on the Quays and so lucky enough to watch swans, geese, ducks from my windows and they do exude such beauty and freedom. I have three little swallows tattooed on my foot and have spent the last two springs watching baby pigeons on my balcony hatch, grow and eventually fly the nest (yes I do actually have a full time job).

But as much as I like to find a connection to anything I have the privilege of attending and writing about with myself, this is most definitely not my story.

The Severed Wing is a new live art performance by artist Corinne, exploring their limited mobility and lived experience as a disabled, housebound artist. Live-streamed from Corinne’s bed using projections and immersive sound design, The Severed Wing is a magical, visceral and intimate live encounter between one physical space and another.

“Watch me a disabled artist confined to bed transform into a bird. Bed confinement is extremely isolating but I live by the woods and hear bird songs from my window daily. I wish to join my feathered friends, escape my confinement and transform into my true self.” – Corinne

Initially piloted as part of LOWRY’s Scratch Nights X Galleries in May 2024. The Severed Wing was commissioned by Lowry and made possible with thanks to funding from Arts Council England.  

We headed to the Studio at Lowry, where I’ve had the privilege of enjoying a number of performances. And it is a privilege because in these smaller spaces, you were are up, close and personal with the artists and performers. And whilst geographically Corinne couldn’t be in the same space with us, in every other way they were, live streamed from the bed they have been almost entirely unable to leave for six years.

A little more about Corinne, they are a disabled, queer self-portrait artist and curator who creates work from their 2 by 1.5 metre artistic studio, aka their bed, with assistance from partner Stephen.

Navigating severe mental illness and fibromyalgia, Corinne has met countless barriers to having their access needs met by venues throughout their bid to bring their performance art to audiences. It was with the advent of zoom and the pandemic, that they found a way for their world to meet that of the outside.

The Severed Wing is and last night was streamed in real time into the studio, using multiple camera-feeds, projection and immersive sound design.

And it’s ironic that taking into account the physical distance, this performance feels significantly intimate. Perhaps it’s because for each act we see exclusively Corinne’s face up close, and because we know they’re performing from their bed, but that feeling of immersion with the artist’s actions is definitely there.

Act one we see Corinne’s reactions as a wooden needle weaves and threads ribbon across their face, creating effectively prison bars, the symbolism requiring no explanation.

We watch Corinne react to each ‘stitch’, their eyes darting up and down, left and right, at points emitting tears. Emotional, as you can imagine.

A further act we see make-up pencils emerge as they paint Corinne’s eyelids and lips somewhat garishly and without restraint. In another we see ‘tears’ of buttons, jewels, pearls mechanically being threaded up and down their cheeks in an image leaving room for interpretation but which is equally beautiful and deeply sad.

In a ten minute recorded film which followed the forty minute performance, we learn the artist’s explanation for some of the visuals – we see that a little ‘door’ on their forehead, ‘opened’ by a key, represents ‘Daisyland’, a place they would figuratively visit as a child, the home of their imaginary friend, Daisy, who they also appear as when speaking in the recorded documentary film. They explain that whilst the daisy flower features frequently in their art, in this case the daisy on the door is replaced by a forget-me-not – a tribute to their father and grandfather who they lost within the same 12 month period. Indeed the fourth act is a tribute to their father.

We also learn in the film that a quote which is included in the piece about luck being that one is born a bird, was actually spoken by Corinne’s father, himself affected by mental illness during his life-time.

I never like to dampen a piece of art by trying to provide words and descriptions to something that isn’t intended to be read about but seen and experienced. So as much as it feels like a cop-out to the reader, I can really only do it some justice by saying how I felt about it. I say this often, but art be it music, theatre, dance, performance, modern, traditional and everything in between, only reaches it’s completion when seen and experienced, leaving behind a feeling and individual interpretation.

There will always be intention exclusively owned by the artist, but art can only ever be fully realised with a reaction.

It is the act where we see Corinne effectively become the flying bird, achieving movement, freedom and escape where I felt at my most emotional. Emotional for the release it symbolised.

And emotional from the feelings I felt in response to the artist’s own, communicated through the visuals they’d created.

And furthermore, emotional from my own individual feelings felt by both what I could see and those which were stirred up from experiences I’d lived that week.

I understand that it is Corinne’s wish in the development and touring of The Severed Wing, to establish and share ‘a replicable practical approach for vues and programmers to better support bedbound artists in creating and presenting live work remotely’.

I’m lucky to have the relationship and geographical proximity to Lowry, to be able to experience the result of the theatre’s own commitment to this, both by its commissioning of the piece through its Artist Development Programme and by its hosting of the performance.

The Severed Wing can next be experienced on what is its final stop of this tour at QUAD Derby on 27 November 2025 (with shout-outs to Art Riot Collective, Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, being the other venues who have hosted this work.

Visit Corinne: The Severed Wing | What’s On | Lowry for more information on those involved in this piece, and for future listings at the theatre and gallery.

You can read about the artist and piece at The Severed Wing.

art photo credit: Lydia Hooke