Wicked Fish performing at the DaDa Cabaret at The Arts Centre (Liverpool Community College), Myrtle Street in 2005

Wicked Fish is a Liverpool-based theatre and creative arts company for people with learning difficulties who use improvisation and devising to make shows that have been performed in theatres, schools, museums and arts centres in the UK and in Europe.

Work by learning-disabled artists has always been an important part of DaDa’s programming.

“Choosing images to feature in DaDa’s exhibition wasn’t something we did lightly. As a passionate and creative bunch of producers, we carefully discussed what these images could mean at first glance and explored what they could be representing at a deeper level? Personally, I wanted to make sure the exhibition was inclusive and that it felt like it represented everyone within DaDa’s community, a celebration of everyone's achievements and hard work over the last 40 years.” - Dean Horrocks.

  • two people seated between gingham-laid tables. A woman on the left, a man on the right. A moment of solace in an everyday setting. The woman's expression, though partly obscured by her hat, is sweet, half-smiling. Her body is angled towards the man, open and inviting in her support, tipping off her chair in her eagerness to offer it. They are linked by a bridge formed of her extended arm. It hovers between them as her fingers, firmly rooted to his shoulder, join them in connection. Though there is a distance of mere inches between herself and the man, his expression is faraway, mired in a world that the woman, despite her tender extension, does not appear to be conscious of. He holds his dipped face in his right hand, his mouth a rictus of disbelief. His left crosses his chest as if to keep emotion contained. Light shafts from the upper left, illuminating her fluorescent jacket. It is an angelic angle. Towards the left, her jacket glows, and the light, as it pools on the arms and the trousers of the man, seems to have been filtered by her. It bathes the two tables framing the subjects. These tables, dressed in a closely checked red and white cloth, each carry a burning red vase and a salt shaker. The one beside the man holds a flower-patterned mug and a basket in addition. Holistically, it is a warm, hopeful image. It impresses upon the viewer the quote: This, too, shall pass.  

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