A First for Grace – a decade after life-changing car accident

Ten years after a car accident that changed her life, Grace Currie is celebrating achieving a First in Fine Art from the University of Chester.

In October 2010, Grace Currie from Bagley, near Ellesmere in Shropshire, was facing a worrying and uncertain future, having been the pedestrian victim of a car accident, which left her with what was described at the time as a ‘catastrophic’ and ‘atrocious’ brain injury. A decade on, and Grace, who is now 27, has proved that she is just at the beginning of a very promising arts career.

For her final degree virtual exhibition work, Grace selected four of her paintings, which were all of her larger than life black and red female figures. Entitled ‘The Identity Series’, in Grace’s words, this was: ‘work exploring the challenges to my identity in a situation of 24/7 care due to serious acquired brain injury’. Through this series, Grace wanted to show her identity as ‘splintered and evolving’ and, as Grace describes in her blog, each work ‘connected to the struggle to resist both an imposed single identity (‘disabled’) or the disorientating sense of fractured self my situation of 24/7 care engenders’.

Grace said: “I think the big figures better express powerlessness and frustration. The larger than life characters carry a power for anyone feeling reduced or ignored – they are a demand for attention denied. Although my work often has humour, the work for this series has moved through anonymity, despair and powerlessness, unfinished figures, floating without context, their vestigial arms behind their backs or hanging by their sides, towards resistance, or even, as here, joyful defiance.”

The car accident left Grace with cognitive impairment. Because of this, the University was able to support Grace using ‘equivalence’ for her written work – which meant that throughout her degree, Grace was able to present her essay work in the form of a blog, and vlog, both of which can be found here: http://gracecurrieart.blogspot.com/

Grace is also grateful for the support she has received from the University. Grace said: “The team has helped really well. The tutors have been really good. They didn’t dismiss me or discriminate.”

Grace has also been able to express herself and use her voice, through her artwork – which has also helped her to make changes in her actual life. For example, through her painting, she was able to express her frustration at having 24-hour care – and she is now moving towards a situation where she will have her nights to herself.

Grace’s mum, Lorraine, said: “When our journey started in 2010 we thought everything was over. For six weeks after her accident, it was unclear whether Grace would live or die. It took almost two months for her to breathe unaided and 12 months before she could return home. She wasn’t walking, speaking or able to do anything for herself at that point. She could hold a pencil but ‘perseveration’ as a consequence of her injury, meant she would go round in a circle and not be able to stop.

“Over the following years we working incredibly hard on every aspect of Grace’s functioning until, in 2015, she was able to do the HNC and HND in Photography, but her art work was taking over.

“We tried several universities, to see if Grace could complete the third year to top up her HND to a degree but without success. No one would budge on the long written dissertation required and this was simply not possible for Grace. Then we found the University of Chester. On approaching Chester, immediately Dr Jeremy Turner, from the Art and Design Department, talked of equivalence. We didn’t know how that would play out or what it might look like but the University was willing to take a chance.”

She added: “Grace has completed the third year over three years and has flourished. She has developed more of herself as an artist and demonstrated her ability. She is able to articulate her thoughts and feelings through her work. The University’s Fine Art Department needs a prize, an award, a massive pat on the back - they have been absolutely marvellous and I hope some of the learning from Grace as a student will help others.”

Dr Jeremy Turner, Deputy Head of Art and Design at the University of Chester, said: “Working with Grace has been a great experience. She has, and has had, something to say as an artist and has developed a way of saying it that is direct, unembellished and yet strangely and satisfyingly subtle. There is nothing trite, cloying or self indulgent in the work she makes. Grace's engagement, enthusiasm and dry, sometimes cheeky wit has been a real joy to behold. Ultimately, though, it's been something of a humbling experience, and being humbled once in a while, looking at things from a different perspective, considering alternatives, thinking about possibilities, well that's a positive necessity so far as an educational process is concerned.”

Lorraine said: “In 2010 Grace had completed six AS levels and was going to do a degree in Psychology. In a previous life, we would have also expected a First of Grace, so this is very fitting that 10 years after that accident, she has got the First that she always deserved. It turns out, it wasn’t all over and in fact it’s just beginning.”

Pictured - Grace Currie