First published: Spring 2002
Judith Scott’s work initially attracted me because of its disturbing power as sculptural form. I found myself being drawn in, but at the same time I was aware of coming into contact with a mystery – the unexplained, and possibly unexplainable, issue of what Judith might be doing. Confronted with her compulsive creative activity unfolding in a psychological situation where terms like art or sculpture, image or form, representation or abstraction could play no part in what was going on, I found myself increasingly driven to find an explanation.
Judith Ann Scott was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 1, 1943. Following upon the birth of her sister Joyce, Judith emerged moments later, unexpected, from the same womb. Tremendous pressure was brought to bear on the parents of severely retarded children to ‘put them away.’ Judith was fortunate, and relatively unique, in being permitted to spend the first seven and a half years of her life at home with her parents, her brothers and, most important, sharing her existence with the person to whom she was closest, her fraternal twin. The tragedy was at least postponed.
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision #38
