Selina Ou
Brydee Moore, elite athlete, Bayswater 2006
- Medium
- type-C photograph
- Further information
Selina Ou was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to produce a series of photographs for the group show Flash: Australian athletes in focus, held at Silvershot Gallery in Melbourne in March/April to coincide with the Commonwealth Games. “I chose to focus on Victorian elite athletes with disabilities as the 2006 Commonwealth Games are the second in history to feature EAD (Elite Athletes with Disabilities) events alongside their able-bodied peers,” says Ou. “I was able to meet Brydee and many other inspiring athletes through the assistance of Wheelchair Sports and Blindsports Victoria.”
Brydee Moore was born in 1990 with cerebral palsy. Diagnosed when she was 11 months old, doctors predicted she would probably be confined to a wheelchair but through exercise and physiotherapy she has progressed from a walking frame to elbow crutches. She has had over 15 operations, including having steel plates put into her hips and ankles, and endured a great deal of pain. Brydee has been involved with wheelchair sports since she was seven and has tried field, wheelchair tennis, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball. She is currently the only female in Victoria to play wheelchair rugby. She competes against men of all ages, some of them Paralympians, who have accepted her as part of the team and respect her. She started doing field when she was seven and has been competing at a national level since she was ten.
Born in Malaysia in 1977, Ou arrived in Australia in 1979. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2001. She has had five solo exhibitions since 2000, most recently Sakura season at Grantpirrie Gallery, Sydney, in 2005. She has exhibited in numerous group shows throughout Australia and Europe. She was a finalist in the Photographic Portrait Prize in 2003 and 2004. In 2003 she was awarded the City of Hobart Art Prize and in 2005 she undertook a three-month residency at the Australia Council’s Tokyo studio. Her work is held in various state collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, and private collections in Australia and New York.
