Prue Stevenson

0:00

- [Narrator] Photos of a pale girl with dark curly hair

0:03

are distorted in various ways.

0:06

The distortions fade to reveal the girl at different ages.

0:09

She paints a man's face with red lines

0:11

radiating from his blue-ringed eyes.

0:14

- [Prue] Our parents and family and educators,

0:17

they all think that this behavior is gonna hold us back

0:21

because of all the stigmas that come with it.

0:24

- [Narrator] Dark concentric rings

0:25

divide a petite woman's face.

0:27

The circles slide into place and close,

0:28

smoothing her freckled profile.

0:30

- [Prue] If you are part of the disablility community,

0:34

you don't get as many opportunities.

0:37

You won't get a job.

0:38

You won't be able to participate in society

0:41

the way that they really want you to be able to do,

0:45

but it's actually those stigmas that are holding us back.

0:49

- [Narrator] Title: Perspective Shift.

0:50

A line expands under the name Prue Stevenson.

0:55

In a workroom, an enormous roll of pink knitted scarf

0:57

lies on a desk beside a cloud

0:59

of fluffy, unraveled pink wool.

1:02

- This is a big knitting work.

Knitting

1:04

I'm gonna unravel the whole thing,

1:07

so then it looks like this 'cause it holds memory.

1:12

- [Narrator] Prue puts the cloud on her head.

1:14

- [Prue] There are a lot of reasons why I create art.

1:17

- [Narrator] Prue moves through a room of hanging strands.

1:20

- [Prue] I need constant sensory input

1:23

and I find that through my art practice

1:25

I can receive that constant sensory input

1:29

and use it in a practical way.

1:32

- [Narrator] Prue methodically winds wool

1:33

around crooked sticks.

1:35

She does embroidery and Taekwondo.

1:37

- I don't have autism.

1:38

I am autistic.

1:40

Every autistic person is different

1:42

and I'm the Prue version of autism.

1:48

My art practice helps me understand the world

1:52

and understand myself.

1:55

I try to be like a reflection on society.

2:00

- Prue's always played with paints, done drawings.

2:04

- She could really capture people very well

2:07

with quick sketches in crammed environments.

2:10

- She integrates her lived experience of autism

2:12

with the work that she creates.

2:17

- Yeah, looking back, she's always been an artist.

2:19

- [Narrator] In a studio, Prue stands in a space encircled

2:22

by a curtain of red, orange, pink and yellow strands.

Childhood

2:26

Prue walks across a brown field,

2:28

her knitting bag hanging from one arm.

2:30

In a lounge room, her parents look through photos.

2:32

Home videos show toddler Prue.

2:34

- [Prue] I grew up in Williamstown.

2:40

I moved there with my family when I was about three 1/2.

2:45

Grew up with my mom and my dad and my brother.

2:49

- Oh, look at this one.

2:50

It's Alex and there's Prue

2:53

and their cousin Nicole and grandad.

2:55

- [Narrator] Prue knits during interviews.

2:57

- [Prue] My parents spent a lot of time

2:59

at the Williamstown shipyard.

3:02

Dad designs them with his company.

3:06

I often joke about him designing belly buttons

3:08

'cause he's a naval architect.

3:10

- Yeah, it's one of her jokes.

3:13

I'm a naval architectural draftsman by trade.

3:15

(laughs)

3:17

Where are you going?

3:17

Prue, are you hiding from us?

3:19

- [Donna] Hey, is that your little house?

3:23

- [Peter] Prue was a beautiful kid.

3:26

Had a lot of fun.

3:27

- Boo. - Oh, boo.

3:29

- [Peter] She had fairy parties.

3:31

- [Donna] Oh, Monkey's front and center,

3:32

so he's looking very special there.

3:34

- [Peter] Yeah, he's pretty new there.

3:35

- I've had Monkey since I stole him from a shop in Germany

3:39

when I was two and he's been around the world with me

3:43

and he's supported me through most of my meltdowns ever.

3:47

My nana and grandma also knitted him

3:50

a whole bunch of jumpers.

3:53

- [Peter] Here's Monkey having a cuddle in the lounge.

3:54

- [Prue] But yeah, he's magical.

3:56

When I haven't had any friends,

3:58

he's always been my friend.

4:00

- It was a great childhood,

4:02

but as she started to interact with mainstream societies

4:05

through the school system,

4:06

that's when issues started to occur.

4:10

- [Narrator] In a photo,

4:10

little Prue grins as she paints outside.

4:13

- I really wanted friends.

4:15

I really wanted to be able to make friends

4:18

and maintain relationships.

4:21

- She started getting a little bit clingy, I suppose,

4:23

and didn't mix in with other kids as much

4:25

and that sort of, yeah.

4:28

Thought, "That's unusual, maybe."

School

4:30

- I got bullied at school a lot.

4:32

They used to corner me, like there would be

4:35

a whole group of kids and a wall behind me

4:38

and they'd just back me in and yell at me

4:41

and I didn't have the skills to get out of that situation,

4:46

so I would just hit and kick and run away.

4:50

And then, so that's why I was always in trouble,

4:52

because I would always get physical.

4:54

- The school system physically restrained her a few times

4:58

and that's usually when the behaviors

5:00

got a little bit worse.

5:01

- I was having meltdowns every single day,

5:04

panic attacks every day.

5:06

I got expelled twice at two primary schools

5:09

and I got suspended seven times,

5:12

including at a high school.

5:15

When I got expelled,

5:17

I got diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.

5:20

So that was in 2001, when I was 11.

5:24

- [Narrator] On a tram, Prue knits.

5:25

In a book, she sketches people.

5:27

- My parents really needed me to be like an average kid

5:32

because they weren't coping

5:35

because they didn't have enough support

5:37

and there wasn't enough education.

5:40

I got told, "Act like a normal person."

5:43

I got told to watch people on public transport,

5:47

copy how they behave and behave like them.

5:51

So drawing people meant that I could really analyze

5:56

how people work so that I could keep up to their standards.

6:01

- The family life was in a bit of turmoil at the same time,

6:05

just handling the pressures of all that.

6:06

- [Prue] It was very unsafe for everybody so I left home.

6:13

The person that diagnosed me said to my parents

6:18

that I would never be able to live in a shared house,

6:21

so from that point on I worked really hard to be independent

6:26

so that I could get out in society

6:28

and do what I wanted to do.

6:31

- She started going down that journey

6:33

about when she was 15 or 16,

6:36

about just trying to find out who she was.

Art

6:38

- [Narrator] Prue wears long knitted scarfs

6:40

and eclectic outfits in a range of vibrant fabrics.

6:44

- It was really clear to me that there wasn't

6:46

really any avenues where I could express my emotions.

6:51

It was clear that people just wanted me

6:53

to bottle up my emotions.

6:55

- [Narrator] In a photo, Prue shows people a range

6:57

of sketches and paintings.

6:59

- I left high school, thank goodness.

7:03

I did one subject at La Trobe College of Art & Design.

7:08

I learned life drawing.

7:10

I learned painting with oils.

7:14

One of the courses I did at La Trobe

7:16

was a graphic design course,

7:18

'cause my parents really wanted me to be a graphic designer

7:22

because they didn't think that artists make any money.

7:25

- It's very important to be doing successfully financially

7:28

and so going an art route wasn't always a positive direction

7:33

in that regard.

7:34

We didn't know anything about art and we thought,

7:37

"Well, graphic design's possibly is an employment avenue."

7:42

- I had a lot of questions and I was looking in the bookcase

7:47

at mom and dad's study and I found this book,

7:50

"Your Special Asperger's Syndrome Gift,"

7:53

and I opened it and it had all

7:57

of the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome.

8:01

I read through them all and I got really overwhelmed

8:05

and I asked my dad.

8:06

I said, "Dad, what is this book?

8:09

"I don't understand

8:10

"why it's got half my personality written in it."

8:13

- She said she started reading it and started

8:16

actually connecting that, "Yeah, I am autistic,"

8:19

through how that book explained

8:22

the symptoms, I suppose, of autism.

8:24

- That's when I started to get used to the idea

8:27

of me having Asperger's Syndrome.

8:30

- [Narrator] A painting is a cloud of blurred colors

8:32

dotted with vivid orange splotches.

8:34

Book pages form the background

8:36

for pale silhouettes of people.

8:38

- I started to connect

8:39

with my autism through my art practice because I

8:43

was still masking most of my autism at that time.

8:50

- [Peter] She did a work called Life in Print,

8:52

where she had to make a work out of an old book

8:56

and she combined her life drawing work

8:59

of people on public transport with a paper collage.

9:02

- [Prue] And I put that work

9:03

into the Toyota Community Spirit Gallery.

9:08

- And she got a final,

9:09

so it was her first competition exhibition,

9:12

which was pretty exciting.

9:13

- [Narrator] Pages are displayed on a window.

9:15

- At La Trobe, Jane,

9:17

she really advocated for me to be an artist

9:20

and over years just had some chats with my parents

9:25

and explained that I really wanted to be an artist

9:29

and eventually they started to listen.

9:32

- The head of the school, Jane Cox,

9:33

who was a real mentor for Prue back then.

9:35

She said she pulled on her nice side and said,

9:39

"Prue's, she's really a fine artist.

9:41

"She's not a graphic designer."

9:43

- [Narrator] A canvas is modeled with shades

9:45

of blue, green and orange.

9:47

Prue and a young dark-haired man stand in a kitchen.

Teddy

9:50

- [Prue] I'm gonna make a cup of tea.

9:53

- You want a cutting board?

9:54

- Yeah. - Yup.

9:57

Foo, there's one over here.

9:59

- [Prue] Teddy's my partner.

10:01

I met Teddy when we were 21.

10:06

- [Narrator] Prue and Teddy sit in a playground.

10:09

- The first time I saw Teddy,

10:11

he walked in with, there were three people

10:13

that came to the party that I didn't already know

10:15

and Teddy introduced himself.

10:19

Well, he was wearing a bear coat

10:20

and I just thought that was the coolest thing ever.

10:24

That he looks like a teddy and his name is Teddy.

10:27

- I had just this terrible gig with a friend of mine

10:31

and his new girlfriend had invited him

10:35

to a house party.

10:37

Out at the backyard was Prue.

10:39

We just, well, I just ended up trying to woo her

10:41

for the rest of the night.

10:42

And two days later, we were having our first date.

10:47

♪ Tuesday night in June ♪

10:50

♪ The introverts are out despite the rain ♪

10:53

♪ Hire guns for entertainment ♪

10:57

♪ We were playing to ourselves ♪

11:01

- [Prue] Teddy has seen me go through lots

11:04

of different experiences.

11:06

He's met my family.

11:08

He's met my friends.

11:09

He's seen me grow.

11:11

He's seen my art practice grow.

11:14

- It has been pretty cool to see her

11:15

expand her skill range around making in general.

11:21

She's very interested in developing skills as a maker.

11:26

- [Narrator] Text: Daniel Teddy Tedford.

11:28

In Bushland, Prue gathers sticks.

11:30

- I'd been at La Trobe for about five years.

11:33

I started to get hungry for more.

11:38

I got into the undergraduate degree

11:41

at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

11:46

This is my studio at RMIT and this is my quiet room.

11:52

- [Narrator] A thick curtain

11:53

shrouds the space under the desk.

11:55

- People think I'm upset when I have meltdowns

11:57

so then I can go in here and have some quiet time

12:02

and let my brain have a rest.

12:04

A meltdown is basically my brain

12:06

gets overloaded by information.

12:09

The neural pathways in my brain,

12:12

there're a lot more of them.

12:13

It means that it processes information

12:17

about five times more detailed than the average brain.

12:22

My brain gets tired.

12:24

It shuts down.

12:26

I've been told I can look scared or upset.

12:30

I'm not actually scared or upset.

12:33

- [Narrator] On a tram, Prue knits solemnly.

12:36

- Going to RMIT was really exciting,

12:39

but it did put a lot more pressure on me.

12:43

They wanted us to go from a journey from A to B

12:47

and talk about what we're picking up,

12:52

what we're perceiving and make an artwork about it.

12:56

I was doing everything I could

12:58

to block off my sensory perception

13:00

and then I was getting told

13:02

that the assignment was to open our sensory perception

13:06

and that was really scary.

13:10

I called my dad and I said, "Dad, I don't know what to do."

13:15

I was so worried.

13:16

Do I just lie or do I tell them the truth

13:21

and that I'm actually extremely overwhelmed right now

13:25

by the amount of information I'm needing to process?

13:29

And Dad said that he can't make that choice for me,

13:33

that it has to be my choice,

13:35

which is a really cool parent thing to say.

13:39

I ended up telling the truth

13:42

and saying in front of a whole group of people

13:46

that I didn't know that I'm autistic

13:51

and the assignment was not written for my brain type.

13:56

- [Narrator] On a tram, Prue smiles.

13:58

- I got an applause.

14:02

It was the complete opposite of what I was expecting.

14:06

That kind of set me up

14:07

for a really good journey in my undergrad

14:10

because with all the student body knowing I was autistic,

14:14

I felt like it was safe to be autistic

14:17

and I started to be able to be really honest

14:21

through my practice and take down some filters

14:25

that I'd put up since I was in primary school

14:30

and that I didn't want to make that compromise anymore.

14:34

- [Narrator] A long multi-patterned scarf

14:35

forms the words "Embrace It" across two walls.

Knitting and steaming

14:38

- Eventually I started to branch away from figurative works

14:46

and go into more abstract expressionist works.

14:50

I was also making byproduct, my knitted work.

14:54

- Yeah, her grandma taught her the knitting

14:58

and Prue took that on as a form of stimming.

15:01

- Stimming is the repetitive movement autistic people do,

15:05

like flapping their arms and jumping up and down.

15:08

It's really, really fun

15:10

and it's really good for our mental health.

15:12

It helps connect us with our environment and ourselves.

15:17

For example, with knitting, it is like stimming.

15:21

I even saw a psychologist once and I said,

15:25

"I feel like I need to self-regulate

15:28

"and I need to get this energy out."

15:30

And she said, "If you feel like that, you can just,

15:34

"if you're sitting down, you can sit on your hands,

15:37

"or if you're leaning on a wall,

15:38

"you can push the energy into the wall

15:41

"and no one will know that you're doing it."

15:43

So she was teaching me tools of how to suppress

15:47

and hide my autistic traits.

15:51

After years and years of my parents and educators

15:58

influencing me in that same way and then doing my undergrad,

16:03

I was starting to break free from that.

16:06

- She just kept on knitting and knitting

16:07

and so byproduct I think was about 30 meters long,

16:11

like a wide scarf and she rolled it up into a ball.

16:16

You can actually pick it up

16:17

and feel the physical weight of anxiety.

Autistic burnout

16:20

- [Narrator] Surrounded by her curtain of hanging strands,

16:22

Prue sits working, her head down.

16:24

- I had a lot of commitments last year

16:28

and I was pushing through my meltdowns,

16:31

pushing through everything

16:34

and doing what I had committed to.

16:37

I did all of that and ended up having an autistic burnout

16:41

and we didn't know, Teddy and I didn't know

16:44

what had happened to me.

16:45

It was very confusing.

16:47

I was really unable to do anything and I was having

16:52

three meltdowns a day for months and months.

16:55

- When she gets focused,

16:56

when she gets this autistic focus on a project,

17:00

she forgets when to eat

17:03

and she forgets to get enough sleep and so forth like that.

17:06

- She said, "We need a way to track this."

17:09

- Well, Teddy made me a meltdown diary

17:13

after we found out I had an autistic burnout

17:17

and it has the day, date and time,

17:21

and it has lots of pictures

17:24

'cause when I'm having a meltdown, I can't always read.

17:28

I can see that recently all my meltdowns

17:32

have been social meltdowns.

17:34

I've realized that I actually need to listen to my meltdowns

17:40

because they're signposts that say,

17:43

"Your brain's tired and you need some downtime."

17:47

- She has started to say no to some engagements now

17:51

for the first time, I suppose.

17:53

Just to look after her mental health.

New avenue of painting

17:59

- One day, I was getting really anxious.

18:02

I had this ball of adrenaline stuck in my chest.

18:05

I was in so much pain.

18:06

I thought, "Okay, I'm feeling the sensation.

18:10

"I've got this new avenue of painting.

18:11

"I'll just paint what I'm feeling."

18:14

And so I painted that painting.

18:17

- [Narrator] A round, gory, red wound gapes

18:18

in a pale, flesh-colored canvas.

18:21

- I used lots of magenta

18:23

and I think a bit of orange and stuff,

18:26

and then I had skin all around it

18:28

so it was similar shape and size in my chest.

18:33

- [Narrator] The painting hangs low.

18:35

- There was a competition at Fortyfivedownstairs

18:39

and we turned up on hanging day with the curator

18:43

and everybody's got their paintings all 2/3 eye height

18:46

that everybody else has got them hung at and Prue said,

18:49

"No, I want it down at that ball of adrenaline.

18:53

"I'm 5'1", it needs to be right at my breastbone."

18:57

The curation is part of the artwork

19:00

and that's what brought the judge down to the work.

19:04

- They were announcing awards and a friend of mine was there

19:08

and he said, "Did you win?"

19:10

And I was like, "No, I don't know.

19:11

"I don't think so."

19:14

And then they said my name.

19:15

- Well that was one,

19:16

won the Emerging Artist Award with Fortyfivedownstairs.

19:21

It was her first art prize.

19:23

- I've never won an award before

19:26

and I realized that every aspect of what I did

19:31

was connected to, there was a way in it.

19:37

I was becoming more expressive in my practice.

19:41

- Yeah, it's just like she's found herself.

19:44

- [Narrator] In a video, Prue and others move energetically.

19:47

- [Prue] I chose to become a self-advocate.

19:51

- She did her Stim Your Heart Out project.

19:54

It gives a slightly different perspective of trying

19:56

to reclaim the language of stimming

19:58

and also teach mainstream society

20:01

the benefits of self-regulation.

Rebel

20:04

- Syndrome Rebel is really a continuation

20:09

of Stim Your Heart Out.

20:10

- She wanted to be able to do a choreographed stim.

20:13

She wanted there to be an element of a written score,

20:19

like in the way that musicians use sheet music.

20:22

- [Prue] So I thought about some stims and I wrote,

20:25

I made up some symbols to go with them.

20:27

- [Peter] She's created a new hieroglyphic language

20:30

since she's created a stimming movement score.

20:33

- [Narrator] Prue performs on a round mat

20:35

that has symbols embroidered around the edge.

20:37

- I was so excited to have a space to be able

20:43

to share stimming where I knew that,

20:47

like in the constructions of the gallery,

20:50

that I knew people were coming to see a performance.

20:53

They knew they were coming to see a performance.

20:55

There's a perimeter that's created by the mat

20:59

that I stand on that's like an autism safety zone,

21:03

a stimming zone, and I can walk on it knowing

21:07

that I don't need to help anybody through that experience.

21:11

I can just be free and stim and then I was so excited.

21:18

- [Narrator] Prue walks from the mat.

21:20

Her audience applaud.

21:21

- [Prue] And that excitement came out in my performance

21:24

and in my stimming and it was really energetic

21:27

and so when I came off,

21:29

people said that they really experienced the joy in it.

21:35

- She's put that into BOK 2019, which is the

21:39

Body of Knowledge conference with Deakin University

21:42

and it's a crossover of art and science.

21:44

- [Teddy] Putting herself out there,

21:45

going to conferences, advocating for her identity.

21:49

- Being a self-advocate is about educating others

21:53

and being really patient and giving a lot of your energy

21:57

to educate others on your lived experience.

22:00

- [Narrator] Prue dips her feet in paint

22:01

and kicks head-height along a wall-sized sheet.

22:04

- I was really discovering

22:06

that I put so many parameters on what art is

22:10

and now it was like anything was possible

22:14

and any medium is possible and it's like

22:17

whatever concept I have and whatever medium I choose,

22:22

they really need to relate to each other.

22:27

I'm a third in black belt in Taekwondo.

22:31

With Taekwondo, it was about

22:33

expending energy, excess energy.

22:36

I got really influenced by an artist called Lee Ufan.

22:40

He dipped a paintbrush in paint and then started at the top

22:44

and drew it down and kept doing that repetitively

22:47

and that felt like stimming to me.

22:51

I did that, but with my feet.

22:54

- [Narrator] Text: Susannah Thorne,

22:55

Museum of Contemporary Art.

22:57

- I first met Prue and her father Peter

23:01

at the APEC Conference in Sydney in 2017.

23:06

- [Narrator] Prue performs the work.

23:08

- She came and had a visit to the MCA

23:10

during the rest of her stay in Sydney

23:13

and I was really keen to invite her to be our opening artist

23:19

for our forum later in the year.

23:22

I was really interested in the idea

23:24

of not only Prue opening our conference

23:27

being our keynote speaker,

23:29

I was interested in some aspect

23:33

of her practice in real time,

23:35

give teachers insight into her work and her practice.

23:40

So Expend seemed like a great opportunity to do that

23:44

and then in conversation with Prue,

23:47

she was very keen for that work to be performed again

23:52

and to be performed here.

23:54

- Susannah and my dad and a technician at MCA

23:58

helped organize my artwork to be on a roof

24:02

and that was the first artwork

24:03

that's ever been shown at the rooftop.

24:07

- That really drew that hush from the crowd,

24:10

where everybody was drinking coffee and doing their thing

24:14

and then suddenly this performance was happening

24:16

and it gradually, this sort of hush and the attention

24:20

of people in that space was really dynamic.

24:24

- I know that they did get a little bit shocked

24:27

at the very beginning because I kept yelling,

24:32

which feels even better

24:34

and it makes your kicks even stronger

24:37

'cause it helps come from here, your belly.

24:41

- I'm in a fortunate position.

24:43

I actually see the reactions of people that see her work

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at pretty close quarters.

24:48

And so that's, I think, helping her get

24:54

that practice out there.

24:56

It's the best work I can do.

24:59

- [Narrator] In a studio, a complex network of sticks

25:02

all wound with pink and orange wool hangs overhead.

25:05

- I think personally right now it's really important

25:08

to have words like autism.

25:10

However, one day it would be great for us all

25:14

to fall under the term neurodiversity

25:18

and then a word like autism wouldn't need

25:20

to get used as much and we can all be individuals.

25:25

- [Narrator] Prue winds wool around sticks.

25:27

- Now I'm making a project for my Master's at RMIT.

25:34

I've got lots and lots of sticks.

25:36

I haven't counted how many sticks but it's a lot of sticks.

25:39

All different sizes and all wrapped in pure wool.

25:44

I really wanted to use natural materials in my work

25:48

because I like to link that diversity of nature

25:53

and the diversity of the human experience being natural

25:57

and my brain type being a valid brain type.

26:02

The intentions of the work have changed

26:05

as the work has evolved, now that it's starting to become

26:09

this other thing that's not just the sticks as individuals,

26:12

but all of them together in a network.

26:16

It's evolved into something else now.

26:19

- [Narrator] A curtain of long, woven strands

26:21

hangs around the edge of the stick canopy.

26:23

Prue and other women talk as they gaze

26:25

at the canopy's irregular curves at the patent strands.

26:31

- [Prue] My dad always said

26:33

that I'm on the knife edge of society of being autistic

26:39

and being neurotypical and that I'm a bridger

26:43

and I bridge the gap between those two communities.

26:48

- I suppose from the medicalized approach

26:51

to treating autism that stride to cure it

26:56

and I suppose from that,

26:57

some people think they can try and fix Prue,

27:00

but as we've learned more about autism,

27:05

there's no fix needed.

27:08

- I'm no longer bridging a gap.

27:10

Now I'm just making a stance and I'm going,

27:14

"Here's the autistic community, accept us, we're awesome."

27:19

- [Narrator] Wearing a slight smile, Prue sits knitting.

27:21

Cut to black.

27:24

Credits: Attitude Foundation presents

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a Taste Creative production.

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Producers: Leah James, Briana Miller.

27:30

Executive Producers: Sally Browning S.P.A., Henry Smith.

27:33

Series Writer and Director: Genevieve Clay-Smith.

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Editor: Javed Sterritt.

27:37

Directed by Josh Searle.

27:39

Audio Description by the Sub Station.

27:42

Filmed on location in Victoria and New South Wales

27:45

on the traditional lands

27:46

of the Wathaurong and Gadigal People.

27:50

The logos for Victoria Australia, ANZ, Inclusively Made,

27:53

Taste Creative Attitude Foundation.

27:55

Copyright 2019, Taste Creative, proprietary limited.