Bonnie Ogilvie

Teens Self-Portrait #3

Bonnie Ogilvie

Teens Self-Portrait #3

2023 | silk, handprints and digital scans | 200 × 130 cm

Bonnie Ogilvie is half Dutch and half Scottish – the latter can be seen in the check patterns of her work. Scottish tartans were once associated with a specific area or clan, and here the tartan refers to the artist herself: it’s a self-portrait.

For this self-portrait, Bonnie revisited her own past. She often had to take special tests for her dyslexia, and she felt uncomfortable because she couldn’t read and write as well as others. She turns that around in her work. She used to write in her diaries using a script that she had created for herself and that only she could read. She alternates that script with quotes from her old dyslexia tests.

Her work shows what it’s like for someone not to be able to read or understand something very well. She hopes her work will initiate change in the school system so that other children don’t have to feel insecure.

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