Eva Marschan-Hayes East Sussex, United Kingdom

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Eva is a self-taught multi- media artist interested in exploring and visualising experiences of groups and individuals that feel different and/or excluded from the mainstream. She works mainly with photography, often in combination with other mediums. As a neurodivergent, queer person, living with disabling chronic health conditions, she draws on her lived experiences, as well as those of others.

I am a neuroqueer (non-binary) German born artist, photographer, researcher and poet based in Sussex. To offer an understanding of how my work evolved, here is a bit about my background:

I always had a strong connection with my inner world, which since childhood I have expressed through art and writing. My early creative practice helped me to work though traumatic experiences and to visualise an alternative world I would have liked to live in. After a long period of introspection, I embarked on an academic journey, which ended with a short-term post-doctoral position. At the same time, I experienced other major changes in my life. I became a full-time carer for our adult daughter, and my mum in Germany was dying. To help me cope I turned to my old friend art again, using photography as the main medium. To my surprise, I noticed a significant shift in my creative practice, from introspection into playful spontaneity, inspired by nature and the beauty of light.

I joined the artist charity Outside In, through which I gained training and finally found my tribe. Since then, I have been diagnosed with ADHD, ASD, Fibromyalgia and ME. My conditions limit my energy and how I can participate in life. But they have also initiated a new internal dialogue, which has inspired and informed more recent visual and textual work. Some of the themes that have evolved include 'vulnerability and self-care' and 'identity, resistance & belonging'. As a visual artist I work mainly with photography often together with other mediums, including oil painting, drawing, assemblage and digital manipulation.

I have used my camera with other marginalized artists to express their identity and lived experiences. Currently I am working with a group of artists to visualise our protest against the recent Supreme Court Ruling & its consequent, exclusive policies affecting transgender people.