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Audio Description

Gold Lamé is a parody or comment on Heaton’s own transmutation into a disabled person. A vehicle collided with the young Heaton and he changed from able-bodied to disabled.  Now he takes an in-valid invalid invacar (which the NHS used to provide to the disabled) and transforms it from ministry blue to gold. Even the name is a transmutation, from the dismissive ‘lame’ into precious ‘gold lamé’.   

About Tony Heaton

Arguably the Godfather of the UK Disability Arts Movement, Tony Heaton OBE can claim to have made several of the landmark iconic pieces that helped define the DAM.  He has exhibited nationally and internationally, with his major commission Gold Lamé winning the commission to be the first sculpture sited on the Liverpool Plinth in 2018.  His Monument to the Unintended Performer was installed on the Big 4 outside Channel 4 TV in celebration of the 2012 London Paralympics, and his neon works have been displayed on London’s Southbank and the Lumiere Festival in Durham. His works in DAM IN VENICE include Gold Lame and Great Britain From A Wheelchair.

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Image credit Andy Barker

Image descriptions:

Banner image. Gold Lamé, a small gold painted car, is installed outside the exhibition building, angled downwards away from the wall, as if rolling off the side of the gallery building or coming out of the window.

1. Gold Lamé, is a sculpture using the car chassis of an old car model associated with disabled people. It's number plate reads 'Lamé' and is installed to appear like its rolling off the gallery building or out of the window into the surrounding paved courtyard. It's front windscreen is filled with gold paint, hiding the driver within.