Chapter One: Curatorial Thesis
Cripping Curation
Few disabled artists and curators have a platform in the gallery and non-disabled curators and uninformed arts organisations do not know how to approach disability:
Curators and critics fail to see beyond the phenomenon of difference or disability … they obsess with the idea of the overcoming of our impairments … we really do need more Disabled people as curators and critics to help us to develop and evaluate the work (Heaton, 2016).
Many disabilities and chronic illnesses cannot be overcome, they are lifelong, forming part of who we are. There must be less focus on overcoming impairments – changing to meet ‘the ideology of normalcy’ (Davis, 1999). It is important that more curators publicly identify as disabled and use their positions to advocate for better representation of disabled artists. Whilst my voice is only one, and this exhibition is not an exhaustive view of disabled artists, it ensures representation of disabled people in visual art (myself in a curatorial role, and the disabled/chronically ill artists whose work is exhibited).
Disabled artists’ work should not be solely discussed in a disability context, but it is important – as we continue to work for disability justice – to be visible for other crip/disabled people, to model kinship and crip community.
If 24% of our population are disabled, why aren’t 24% of exhibited artists disabled (KirkWade, 2023, p.5)? Arts spaces are hostile environments for disabled people, due to the regular absence of access measures (de la Puente, 2022). Early studies indicate guided
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gallery tours ‘may provide relief from perceived social disconnection and pain’, for people experiencing chronic pain (Koebner et al. 2019). There are clear social benefits, and possible pain relief, to gain from engaging with art in a gallery space – accessibility must be improved for disabled audiences, who could benefit the most.
UK gallery Attenborough Arts Centre (AAC) has embedded disability, in a political sense, into its programming. AAC ‘aim[s] to be a sector leader for inclusion and a centre of excellence for disability arts’ (Attenborough Arts Centre, 2023). Seen in their online exhibition archive, much of the 2022/23 programme featured solo exhibitions of disabled and chronically ill artists. Whilst AAC's commitment to disabled artists and audiences is an incredibly positive and radical step, there is still a huge lack of meaningful change from many arts institutions in the UK. Certainly, more can be done in Scotland to improve awareness of, and opportunities for, disabled creatives (Secmezsoy-Urquhart, 2021).
Eliza Chandler’s Reflections on Cripping the Arts in Canada (2017) shaped this curatorial thesis, with strategies for the real-world praxis of cripping arts spaces and methodologies of working. The ideology of professionalism is often at odds with the reality of being disabled/chronically ill/neurodiverse - this is not to say that disabled people cannot be professional artists or arts workers, but a critique of the limited set of aesthetics and ways of being that society deems professional.
The inequities that our community faces are shaped by assumptions that disabled artists are unskilled, unprofessional, and lack artistic and political insight, beliefs that harken back to an era of “outsider art” (Chandler, 2017).
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Examining professionalism through a crip-critical lens, it is clearly an inherently exclusionary paradigm, used to keep people – who don’t fit a narrow view of ‘professionalism’ – out of spaces of power. Work made by disabled people may be seen as merely therapeutic – exoticised outsider art – rather than skilful, complex, critical art. If institutions continue to programme outsider art exhibitions, without acknowledging their role in maintaining disabled people’s external position, we will always remain outsiders.
When we fail to acknowledge disability leadership and politics in our desire for disability arts, we run the risk of replicating historical ways of appreciating disability arts without recognizing or supporting the professional development, autonomy, and ... creative and political intentions of disability artists (Chandler, 2017).
Politicisation of disability arts is absent in institutions, which are unwilling to implement structural, long-term changes. This is particularly evident since lockdowns ended, with many arts organisations discontinuing online events/screenings and masking requirements in their spaces Scottish writer and performer Harry Josephine Giles explained ongoing issues of disability representation and access in Scotland: ‘we’ve had decades of consultations looking at why disabled people aren’t represented in the arts.
We’re sick of saying the same things ... [t]here’s consultation fatigue’ (2020). Institutions are willing to start conversations but refuse to take action to implement measures advised by disabled people; research and consultation projects are wholly superficial.
Giles also detailed financial barriers for disabled people, ‘we can’t afford to be artists ... we need an approach to arts funding that prioritises work ... happening at a grassroots
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level ... more diverse, more inclusive. There’s no top-down solution; there’s only a bottom-up solution’. This understanding of mainstream arts organisations’ exclusionary practices and a need for grassroots, diverse programming has informed my choices of venue and artworks for this exhibition.
The Crip Time Continuum Crip kinship extends to future crips – people who are currently non-disabled but will become disabled/chronically ill. ‘The category of disability is permeable- anyone can become disabled, and in fact, most people will develop impairments with age’ (Davis, 1999). This exhibition improves awareness of disabled people in our communities and, additionally, of the impermanence of non-disability. It is therefore beneficial to more people that accessibility is fully considered, particularly in public spaces.
Perhaps, through the visibility of disabled artists in this exhibition, people might see claiming disabled identity as less contentious. Understandably, some people with impairments reject this characterisation – likely due to societal stigma and othering.
The decision ... to self-identify (or not) as a 'Disabled' or 'black' or 'queer' artist. The positive or negative implications of doing so, and what these implications still tell us about the machinations and prejudices of mainstream cultural organisations, remains an ongoing important political debate as well as a deeply personal dilemma for artists (Plant and Raabe-Webber, 2016).
Only artists who self-identify as disabled/chronically ill were selected for this exhibition, though their impairments/conditions are not disclosed. In contrast, if artists with impairments choose to reject disabled identity, it is also a rejection of disabled people,
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history and community. How can we build kinship and coalitional support if there is reluctance to identify as disabled or crip?
All disabled people face discrimination ... by acting as a united group, and showing our support and solidarity with each other, we become stronger, and we can show that disability is not our problem. And if we want to change things for the better ... we must work from our shared experiences of exclusion (The British Council of Organisations of Disabled People (BCODP), 1997).
Artist Ryan Gander’s comments on disabled identity are particularly disappointing and void of solidarity, ‘the art world these days has a lot of artists who barter in unique selling points ... but I don’t identify with being in a wheelchair at all ... I’m not disabled –I’ve spent my whole life trying not to be disabled’ (2023). As established, the art world is highly exclusionary to disabled people and we face greater barriers to sustaining an arts career. Gander’s categorisation of disability as a ‘unique selling point’ is incredibly insensitive and uninformed. Self-identification is important – individuals should choose how to describe themselves – but Gander's statements could contribute further harm to disabled people. He does not engage with the central principles of social and relational models of disability and returns responsibility for disability to those with impairments.
If an established artist who is a wheelchair-user frames disability as a negative, something to spend your whole life trying to avoid, how might this make other artists who use mobility aids, and/or identify as disabled feel? Language is important and it is paramount that artists and arts workers educate themselves on ableism. This exhibition illustrates the rich history of disabled artists and the diversity of their work, countering negative stereotypes.
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This proposal’s focus on crip kinship draws from Haraway (Terranova, 2017) and Lewis (2021, 2022). Lewis’ articulation of 'mutual comradely mothering' is a perfect articulation of crip kinship in practice. Accessibility is a useful term, but dull and uninspiring – it is an acceptance, rather than a welcoming. Crip kinship, over accessibility, carries more positivity and sustainability; care and interdependence rather than tokenistic policies. Kinship for artists involves ‘the support of a community of comrades and companions, instead of relying on ... biological relatives’ (Smith, 2019a), subverting the idea of the artist as the lone creator, singular genius. Supported working is not unusual, many nondisabled artists work with assistants and collaborators to produce their art (Yu, 2020).
Haraway also states 'nobody can be kin to everything, but our kin networks can be full of attachment sites ... care across generations is urgent' (2019). This has been especially evident since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Now is a vital time for this exhibition – when connectedness, empathy and care for vulnerable people has all but disappeared. To forget the solidarity and interdependence of lockdown periods would be a great mistake. We are not post-covid, we are living through what The British Academy has termed ‘a COVID decade’ (2021). This exhibition promotes mindfulness around chronic illness and disability and encourages a shared responsibility in creating parity between disabled and non-disabled people.
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Chapter Two: Curatorial Choices
It is proposed that this exhibition will take place at Generator Projects (‘Generator’) in Dundee. Whilst this venue will not meet all access needs, Generator has a clear accessibility policy on their website, and a commitment to improving accessibility (Generator Projects, 2023). The central location within Scotland improves access for travelling audiences. Unfortunately, many art spaces in the city would have access issues – no perfect venue currently exists. This demonstrates a need for the sector to better understand, and actively prioritise, accessibility: this exhibition will be a catalyst for such conversations and learning opportunities. Nonetheless, Generator is the best fit for this exhibition due to its central location, values congruent with the exhibition, and its reputation as a welcoming grassroots space (Art Night, 2023).
Young people in Scotland (approximately 25 and under) are a target audience, particularly those already engaged with visual art. Young people are more aware of marginalisation and are critical in advocating for change (BBC News, 2022). Issues of accessibility and ableism do not receive parity of importance with other protected characteristics; ‘so many abled people – including abled members of the left … want to forget disability’ (Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2022). Change is needed to improve accessibility in the arts, and opportunities to build a creative practice, for disabled and chronically ill people. Current institutional leaders do not prioritise disability – perhaps, given opportunities to learn about disability, the next generation will intervene, as seen with Just Stop Oil gallery protests (BBC News, 2023)
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The additional target audience is disabled and chronically ill people, of any age, who can benefit from representation and kinship opportunities created via the exhibition. Disabled artists may have especially positive experiences in an exhibition with access as a foundation
All selected artworks are sculptural and video pieces; both media exemplify ideas of ‘making visible the invisible’ (Bullock, 2021b). Selected works will fill the exhibition space, rather than existing in the margins of the gallery walls; the unique physicality of sculpture, and kinetic liveliness of video art, will bring crip life into the space with audiences.
Collapsed Cane (Darling, 2017) deftly illustrates the experiences of chronically ill people; the contradiction of existing in a body fluctuating between ‘resilience and physical decline’ (Art Viewer, 2023). Symbolic of impairment, the cane is an obvious nod to the disability/crip theme of this exhibition. An item designed to aid mobility is transformed into something unusable, purely decorative. The piece illustrates how some in the crip community may feel – ‘collapsed’ under the weight of chronic illness, or pain, and rarely having our access needs met. The Cane embodies the themes of the exhibition and allows people who use mobility aids to see themselves represented.
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Darling won the Turner Prize this year (Lawson-Tancred, 2023). Including this work may boost attendance – the pull of a recognisable name can engage artists and the wider public alike.
Screen recorded video piece 2021-05-17 at 12.48.50 AM (Bullock, 2021a), is recognisable to many; the informality matches Zoom/Facetime calls many became familiar with during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Having this video of me sharing my desktop screen … videos of me breathing/drawing in bed, and showing my medical records felt like a way to let the viewer into my private physical space but also my private digital space. Both … have become really essential to my work, as tools that make my practice more accessible to me, and I think to the viewer as well (Bullock, 2021b).
This format automatically situates the video in remote, domestic work – particularly in glimpses of drawing apparatus which Bullock uses from her bed. She elucidates the realities of chronic illness – confined living, at a time when many are relishing their postlockdown freedom. The visual familiarity provides a point of connection for those unfamiliar with crip theory; the utilitarian style of video-making offers a less intimidating, non-academic introduction to the niche field of crip theory, enabling more people to feel comfortable identifying as crip and finding kinship with others.
Roo Dhissou’s ethos mirrors the catalyst for this exhibition – challenging the inaccessibility of arts spaces. ‘How often is it that you go to an art space, and you've got somewhere to lie down in the middle of a show, or somewhere to sit down for that matter?’ (Dhissou, 2022). Opposing the conventionally barren white cube, with no
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concession to human needs or consideration of comfort, Sangat (Community) (2020) acts as seating and a place of true rest (amplified through removing shoes – a purposeful rest, not a momentary pause) and interaction with others. Partnering ‘seat’ artworks with video pieces – aligning Sangat with CRIP TIME (2018) – brings these pieces into conversation with one another, creating intertextual understanding for audiences. Do you want us here or not (Shannon, 2018) will be grouped with both Bullock (2021a) and Crow (2012). Video pieces will play alternately, with Shannon’s bench providing space to fully engage with both pieces.
I haven't been able to learn about myself … from mainstream culture, but I've learned so much from other disabled people, from their writing, from their art … we are mirroring back to each other different facets of ourselves … How can I create things that respond to my experience and give other disabled people an opportunity for reflection or catharsis or resonance? (Shannon, 2019).
Demonstrating the importance of crip kinship and community care, the artwork explicitly provides space for unwell and tired people. It exposes the lack of consideration, in gallery spaces, for bodies requiring greater opportunities for rest – and boldly subverts the untouchable nature of art in the gallery. Audiences can commune with the work. There is an invitation to claim crip identity and become a part of the community; a community providing space for rest and connection.
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Bedding In Bedding Out: Reflections from the Bed (Crow, 2012) incorporates footage and discussion of the in-person and online aspects of the wider Bedding Out project. Crow has spoken about the benefits of both existing together: [T]hrough doing Bedding Out and being contacted by people [via Twitter] … I realized, there are thousands … of us living bed lives, but also many more people … who edit themselves in public and face this same dilemma … how hidden we’ve been and how isolated many of us have been, has really been revealed (2013).
In the decade since this project, social media has changed drastically. Complex communication and community building may not be possible now, as it was in 2012 –particularly on Twitter (now ‘X’). Journalist Jon Ronson has commented on this decline, ‘In the early days, Twitter was a place of curiosity and empathy' but since its pivot toward gamification, mass online shaming and harassment, the platform cannot facilitate genuine conversation - ‘Twitter is where nuance goes to die’ (2015: 2021).
Bedding Out... feels almost utopian in our current digital landscape. If digital communication is controlled by corporations will this ever be a reliable place for finding, and maintaining, kinship for people who cannot leave home? This is vital to consider in building the future of an accessible art world.
Shaken Not Stirred (Heaton, 1992) is a pivotal artwork of the UK Disability Rights Movement. The pyramid of charity collection cans, and press conference performance by Heaton, were created to fight against “negative stereotypes that were … false and damaging” - the focus of charity Telethons at the time (Heaton, 2023).
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The sculpture critiques societal focus on charity, rather than rights. Charity is temporary and cannot provide the security of disability rights enshrined in law (BCODP, 1997). The piece is anti-monumental, in stark contrast to traditional patriarchal aesthetics of sculpture – characterised by Giulia Smith as ‘public displays of authority’ (Modern Art Oxford, 2022, 37:10). A precariously balanced collection of small, scarlet, plastic vessels. The use of individual cans combined is again a form of opposition, an aidemémoire of the importance of collective action.
Donald Rodney’s inclusion in this exhibition is vital. Rodney made art about his chronic illness around the time of the Disability Rights Movement and was central to the BLK Art Group (Tate, 2023) – this aspect of intersectionality, mutual solidarity against oppression, is the crux of this exhibition. Disability doesn’t affect everyone equally and ‘various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other’ (Crenshaw, 2020). Rodney’s perspective, evident in the selected work, Psalms (1997), is regularly absent in representations of the Disability Arts Movement in the UK, ‘[t]he chair is an ex voto: a stand-in for the artist, making both him and his illness visible, while critiquing the invisibility of Black and disabled artists within mainstream artistic culture’ (Gleeson, 2020).
Psalms bolsters the shared motivation and struggle for crip and queer communities and people of colour – and the need for kinship, across marginalised groups. The distress of chronic pain and isolation are ‘hermetically sealed within the body of the sufferer'
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(Nimarkoh, 2003). Rodney’s work exposes this misapplied taboo, baring these oftenignored aspects of chronic illness.
CRIP TIME (Lazard, 2018) explores the repetition of chronic illness and the medical model of treatment. Medications may change, but maintenance is constant – requiring time and energy that chronically ill people may not have. In crip theory, resisting normative time is integral to accessibility; embracing crip time affirms the needs of disabled/unwell bodyminds and challenges ableist “ideals of progress and productivity” that society expects us to perform (Bullock, 2021b). Lazard is keenly aware of the depoliticization of disability, and the lack of community-building this can lead to:
When I became disabled … I knew descriptively disabled people, but I didn’t know anybody who politically identified as disabled. A lot of my earlier work was feeling out that positionality in the absence of community (Lazard, 2020).
The video is mostly silent – bar repetitive opening and closing of pill boxes. Audio will only be heard through headphones, allowing viewers to either fully experience this repetition or experience the audio of the other video piece through speakers. Each piece selected is emblematic of crip kinship. Some pieces provide physical space for fellow disabled people, others provide opportunity to learn about our shared history or simply see our experiences reflected back to us – to feel less isolated as disabled people.
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Figure 1 Jesse Darling, Collapsed Cane (2017), Steel, aluminium, rubber and lacquer, 60x75cm
Figure 2 Hannah Bullock, 2021-05-17 at 12.48.50 AM (2021), Video
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Figure 3 Roo Dhissou, Sangat (Community) (2020), Mixed media, 114x35cm
Figure 4 Finnegan Shannon, Do you want us here or not (2018), MDO and paint, 183x91x66cm
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Figure 5 Liz Crow, Bedding In Bedding Out: Reflections from the Bed (2012), Video
Figure 6 Tony Heaton, Shaken Not Stirred (1992), Plastic collection cans, 162x220cm
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Figure 7 Donald Rodney, Psalms (1997), Adapted wheelchair, no dimensions
Figure 8 Carolyn Lazard, CRIP TIME (2018), Video
Chapter Three – Curatorial and Exhibition-Making Influences
Works discussed in this chapter influenced the curatorial voice, thinking about curating not simply as selecting artwork but in shaping the physical space and ensuring audio/visual access materials are in place. They ensured keen awareness of the ethos of artists selected, the necessity of an engagement with crip theory or politicised understandings of disability.
Seating
More than ramps... (Easton, 1993) aided in forging the path to explore integrated access in a gallery setting. Although the dissertation is primarily concerned with architecture and physical accessibility, it radically calls for arts spaces to do more than building regulations require – for disabled people to be viewed as ‘an integral part of the design process, not an extra’ (p.1). Easton’s writing on seats and rest was particularly formative: Noticeably absent in many galleries is the provision of comfortable seating. Even the fittest of people become physically exhausted when wandering round galleries, and ... attempt to rush round. The average time spent looking at each picture is seconds rather than minutes. Matisse said that a painting should be like a ‘comfortable chair’; perhaps this should be taken more literally in art galleries (p.20).
Personal experiences of gallery visits leading to increased pain sparked a fascination with rest, in this exhibition. Following Easton’s words, seating became the ethos; audiences are invited to rest within the art. Two video pieces feature people laying
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down, one sculpture is an adapted wheelchair, and two additional works act as functional seating in the exhibition. Both seats feature hard surfaces and so it will be helpful to provide cushions and/or an alternative softer seat.
Curation in Common
Some selected artists have previously exhibited together, in group shows with themes of illness and disability. Crip Time is possibly the largest exhibition centring crip theory to date (MMK, 2021). Taking place in Germany, it featured work by Darling, Shannon, Lazard and Rodney.
Whilst the curation and location of this proposal are unique, there was concern that this commonality made it unoriginal – therefore unnecessary. Conversely, this demonstrates how important the exhibition is. The relatively small pool of artists/works to select from evidences the need for greater visibility for disabled artists (more opportunities to exhibit and make crip-centric work, free from discrimination). By introducing new audiences to disabled/crip artists, the possibility for future artists to take up the mantle expands.
I attended an online panel discussion for Liza Sylvestre’s asweetsea exhibition at Collective, Edinburgh (Sylvestre, L. et al. 2023). The conversation transformed my understanding of radical access methods in visual art. BSL interpretation and audio description of images were embedded within the talk. BSL access is increasing at events, but image description is regularly absent, perhaps stemming from an ableist
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Liza Sylvestre
presumption that arts audiences do not have visual impairments – despite the often non-visual, intermedia scope of contemporary art.
Sylvestre explained that although disability is sometimes afforded space as an academic subject matter, it is rarely the methodology (2023). In academic settings, this could include disability modules led by disabled people and access methods beyond just reasonable adjustments. This is an innovative way of thinking about cripping exhibitions and gallery spaces; users of access methods (captioning, audio describing) are not monolithic, flexible approaches to access are important. If disability methodology was utilised, this would model what Mia Mingus labels ‘access intimacy’:
Access intimacy is interdependence in action ... most important is not whether ... things are perfectly accessible, or whether ... there is ableism; but rather what the impact of inaccessibility and ableism is on disabled people and our lives … it is knowing that someone else is with me in this mess (2017).
Shared reliance on one another to facilitate access in a non-hierarchical manner, where each person’s needs are met, is the ideal. Mingus acknowledges that these ideals cannot always be achieved but, in striving to reach this standard, there is solidarity between disabled and non-disabled people.
Additionally, Sylvestre discussed the idea of ‘complicated access’ – not replacing basic access, but a more critical approach to access (2023). If audio descriptions or subtitles are created as an afterthought, not in the same spirit of creativity as the art itself, this is not equal access. She suggested that complicated access does not presume that there
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is a 'simple solution of translation' to create access, a like-for-like substitution (2023). Such a trivialised view of translation flattens out all mystery and unknowability of the artwork. I would have liked to include Liza Sylvestre’s Captioned: Channel Surfing (2017) in the exhibition; this piece uses the methodology of complicated access Sylvestre advocates for and, through subversion of subtitles (often seen as a plain transcript of speech), creates completely new meaning for the video. Unfortunately, I discovered Sylvestre’s work during the late stages of writing this proposal and could not amend curatorial choices due to time constraints.
Attending this discussion has enriched my approach to proactive, complicated access. However, there are gaps in representation (and possibly accessibility) for visually impaired and hearing impaired/D/deaf artists in this exhibition. Many deaf people do not identify as disabled and, at the point of curation, I was not confident in my knowledge of identification with crip theory/culture to include deaf artists within this proposal. With greater time and capacity, I would have liked to consult a variety of people who may be part of the disabled/crip community to improve the diversity of perspectives in this exhibition.
Giulia Smith
Dr Giulia Smith's writing on disabled artists and crip theory, in a UK context, has been invaluable in conducting research for this proposal. There has been a recent ‘co-option of ‘the politics of care’' in the arts industry (Smith, 2018); as this happens against the backdrop of a crumbling NHS and social care system in Britain, artists must be cautious
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of the motivations behind this rising interest in care (Easthope, 2023). Art cannot replace healthcare:
Art has a big role to play in the well-being of communities. What is disturbing, however, is that artists and cultural institutions are being encouraged to step in where the state is withdrawing (Smith, 2018).
Whilst creativity can be helpful, it is no substitute for proper healthcare and a social safety net. This is particularly true for disabled and chronically ill people. Curatorial decisions were conscious to distance from narratives of art-making as therapy, in lieu of clinical/social support; selected works are critical of attempts to shrink the state’s role in supporting disabled people.
Additional emerging curatorial themes are crip theory and disability. Artists working within the framework of crip theory, as politicised disabled people, are ‘resisting being consumed by the art world’, their work aestheticised and consumed as a passing trend (Smith, 2018). The art world’s hijacking of care aligns with the rise of self-care and wellness industries. Marketing beauty products, supplements and pseudoscientific trinkets as opportunities to manage our health is characteristic of wellness – ‘quick fixes that do not improve individual ... lives nor address larger societal problems’ (Lakshmin, 2023). Consideration of care may seem positive, but there is little meaningful change in the arts; abstract ideas of care are considered, but there is no cultural shift towards care. The industry is the same as it ever was. This exhibition actively provides care; through
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creatively integrated seating, audio description, subtitling, mandatory masking and digital access. In line with Generator’s Accessibility Policy, all works will be audio described – available in the gallery and online (Generator Projects, 2023). All video pieces are subtitled, with CRIP TIME (2018) creatively describing environmental sounds in the absence of language. Masking will also be required in the exhibition space and during any events, alongside Generator’s use of air purifiers – protecting vulnerable audiences who wish to attend in-person. The exhibition will benefit from online access. Film pieces will be temporarily hosted on the Generator website. Images and videos of sculptures in the gallery setting, will also feature on the website and social media –allowing audiences to experience the exhibition digitally, if unable to visit.
If disability becomes more prominent in the arts, care must be taken to avoid crip commodification/crip-washing/crip capitalism, through reductive, aestheticised crip identities and stories – as with co-option of queer identities and rainbow capitalism.
The assimilation of crip theory within the mainstream art world is contentious. At best, cripping the museum means exposing the ableism of this sector … [a]t worst, the same endeavour ends up having the opposite effect of ‘museumifying’ the crip, in a pattern of continuity with the institutional co-option of radical feminist and queer aesthetics within the art market (Smith, 2021).
Importantly, this exhibition features artworks that are overtly political and sits within a venue which does not try to separate the artistic from the political, takes accountability for access shortcomings and is committed to improving accessibility.
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The commodification of a disabled/chronically ill artist is abundantly clear in the everincreasing merchandising of Yayoi Kusama (Butchins, 2023). Kusama experiences depersonalisation and ‘obliteration’ due to visual hallucinations; countless Kusama pieces are shaped by disability, even if not explicitly depicting disability. This is conveniently omitted in marketing of Kusama commodities. Her work and personal image have been merchandised, disfigured into logos and designs, rather than art. In the event that disability justice becomes a more universally recognised idea, caution is required to maintain the radicality of crip theory and oppose the corruption of crip identity into market demographic.
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Chapter Four: Intertextual Media, Additional Curatorial Influences
About a Boy
An important influence on this examination of crip theory and kinship is feature film About a Boy (2002). Whilst pursuing casual relationships with single mothers, Will – a resolutely single and unattached man – becomes involved in the lives of Fiona and her 12-year-old son Marcus, due to Fiona’s mental health crisis. Will eventually learns that he is not as content in his independence as he had thought; community and connection are missing from his life, and his declared routine of ‘island living’ may be a signifier of his own mental health difficulties.
There is not a great deal of analytical engagement with the film; certainly, at the time, some critics dismissed it as ‘schmaltz’ (Bradshaw, 2002). However, it could be argued that About a Boy depicts theoretical ideals of kin-making and the benefits of non-nuclear families in ways which are far ahead of its time (their final blended family is presented as quotidian, a non-event) – particularly in mainstream culture. The film engages with the necessity of crip kinship – when a single mother’s mental health reaches crisis point, it is her friends, and network of single parents (S.P.A.T. - Single Parents Alone Together), who care for and support her and her son. The mother and son’s wider biological family are not present throughout the film – except for one obligatory and uncomfortable Christmas meal.
A platonic ideal of the romantic comedy generally brings a couple together at the end and About a Boy rejects this conclusion. As young Hoult’s Marcus says at a
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particularly poignant moment, “Two people isn’t enough; you need a backup” (Anderson, 2021).
Needing a ‘backup’ person, speaks to interdependence in crip communities; ‘interdependence … embraces need and tells the truth: no one does it on their own and the myth of independence is just that, a myth’ (Mingus, 2011). Interdependence equally benefits disabled and non-disabled people. Through neoliberalism, we have been conditioned to believe that to be successful is to be independent, ‘individual’, and that in order to care for others, we must be biologically related (Thatcher, 1987, quoted in Oxford Essential Quotations, 2016) – but people cannot live completely alone, ‘no man is an island’ (About a Boy, 2002). This is communicated via Will’s struggle throughout the film. On the surface, Will has every signifier of neoliberal success/excess – his own modern home filled with things (espresso machine, huge tv, giant sofa), an Audi, an expensive haircut – but he is unhappy. Will’s life lacks meaning. By the end of the film, Will finds meaning through connection with others, nurturing relationships which bring ‘consequences … accountabilities and obligations and pleasures’ into his life – in short, kinship (Haraway, 2019).
In a mid-narrative arc point of crisis, Will tells Marcus 'I'm not your family, mate … I'm not your uncle. I'm not your big brother and, I think we've established pretty firmly now, I'm not your father either am I?' (About a Boy, 2002). Through Will's statements we see that, in the beginning of his relationship with Marcus, Will views the nuclear family as the place from which care and duty arise. At the end of the film, Will, Marcus and Fiona celebrate Christmas together – as part of a larger group, comprising adults and children,
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friends and romantic partners. This final scene shows the positive impact of kin-making; contrasting earlier depictions of Christmas where our characters are quite miserable, either alone or spending the day with people with whom they have no connection (despite being biological relatives).
Although many people that Will encounters point out that he does ‘nothing’, it is crucial that the film’s focus on how Will spends his time is not solely about his joblessness. Through ensuring that this character does not find purpose in a career (accruing further capital and power) and instead becomes, in a sense, care work – ‘the work of care through networks of support’ (Kim and Schalk, 2021) – the film is strongly aligned with crip theory and intersectional feminism, and is a good example of people using their privileges (e.g. inherited wealth, secure housing – and therefore time) to benefit their wider community.
About a Boy may, on the surface, seem an unorthodox vehicle for analysis of crip theory and kinship/kin-making – but it is a quietly radical work, plainly depicting these ideas which are still too often missing from our culture.
Crip Camp
Crip Camp (2020) was initially included in the curation of this exhibition. The documentary is educational, and the depictions of disabled people are refreshing, in comparison to common practice in film and television – described by filmmaker Justin
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Edgar as ‘true stories ... appropriated by able-bodied filmmakers … invariably made for non-disabled audiences’ (The Film Programme, 2018, 25:23).
The filmmakers never pity those in the documentary or, conversely, valorise them as the brave supercrip who ‘overcomes’ disability (Kafer, 2013, p.87). The film is somewhat political, demonstrating the power of coalitions pushing for legal change. However, further reading of crip theoretical texts, particularly by QTBIPOC crip writers (Schalk, 2013: Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2018), exposed the flaws of the documentary. It does not have a truly intersectional approach or address current political and access issues in a way which would be cohesive with the wider exhibition.
Unfortunately, the film focuses on being ‘palatable to a mainstream audience’, with heroic central figures and a happy ending (Sedgwick, 2021). Mainstream critics described the documentary as an ‘inspiration’ (Lawson, 2020) or praised how subjects showcased how able they were, ‘overcoming’ their disabilities ‘in order to be taken seriously’ (Debruge, 2020). This response is concerning. If, despite the filmmakers’ better intentions, non-disabled people believe that, for our rights to be enshrined in law, disabled people must risk our lives – then perhaps this film is not appropriate for noncrip audiences. Although it is not inherently wrong to find Crip Camp inspirational – I was certainly inspired by the radical camp and the community support and activism of the Berkeley scene – there is a risk of the film being viewed by outsiders (non-disabled, non-crip) as ‘inspiration porn’ (Wilde, 2021). This would be an ableist perspective, reducing people featured in the documentary to brave ‘objects of inspiration’ for non-
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disabled people, rather than complicated individuals with nuanced thoughts and feelings about life as a disabled person (Young, 2014).
Another issue, briefly alluded to in the documentary, is possible strike breaking action taken to circulate information of the 504 occupation and protests to national ABC news outlets. The impact of the technicians’ strike at ABC is discussed by journalist Evan White – who covered the 1977 Section 504 Occupation – in Crip Camp and in an additional oral history interview held by the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability (2014, 07:37). National news coverage of these events may have aided in pressuring politicians and lawmakers to take action – but, if the strike was broken (circumventing the work stoppage of technicians in broadcast news), this is against the solidarity, the ‘Marxist, materialist roots’, that the disability rights movement was founded on, particularly in the UK (Wilde, 2021). The crip community should act in solidarity with other marginalised people and stand with workers, against capital owners and others who seek to oppress us.
Crip Camp reinforces hierarchical narratives of social justice movements. Whilst depicting disabled people as individuals demonstrates that disabled people are not monolithic, lionisation is problematic. Much attention is given to Judy Heumann and, whilst her contributions to the disability rights movement are incredibly important, it was collective action that forced change. Fellow activists are sidelined, wrongly referred to as Heumann’s ‘allies’ in media coverage of the film (Lawson, 2020). Most activists were themselves disabled, so to describe them as merely allies (usually a term used for those
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who stand in solidarity with a marginalised group, but who are not part of said group) minimises the power of disabled people taking action against our systemic oppression.
In contrast to About a Boy, this documentary does not align with the ideas of crip kinship underpinning the exhibition. Some aspects of the camp, and later the Berkeley community, illustrate crip kinship, but this is largely absent from the film. The final act focuses on heteronormative married couples, some of whom have children. ‘There are no alternative happy endings to the cisnormative family’ (Sedgwick, 2021). This exhibition is not concerned with reinforcing narratives of assimilation within heteronormative, capitalistic notions of the family, which do not benefit disabled people. Instead, we need ‘a vision for interdependent alternative ways of being’ to benefit people of all bodyminds (Sedgwick, 2021).
Thus, despite Crip Camp’s largely positive depictions of disabled people and spotlighting of disability rights history in the US, including this film in the exhibition would be inappropriate. The concern is that the main target audience of the exhibition –younger people who have yet to learn about disability, in a meaningful way – might take the wrong messages from this film. Through omission, Crip Camp presents access issues and stigma against disabled people as, to a certain extent, solved, undermining the radical crip frameworks in which the exhibition is rooted.
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Conclusion
Politicisation of disability informed the curatorial choices and wider thesis of this exhibition. Describing Lazard’s practice, Smith wrote, '[c]reating collective networks is a fundamental part of what Lazard does as a politicised artist who is also a politicised patient’ (2019b). This sentiment was entrenched within this proposal, a commitment to fostering crip kinship and community via the exhibition. Such networks – and their use for political advocacy – are vital to our survival as disabled/crip people.
Disability is political; disabled people’s lives are shaped by policy and state support, or lack thereof. The current political climate is hostile towards disabled people. This exhibition aims to be a salve in this time of carelessness around COVID; whilst still posing a risk to the entire population, the threat is felt most by immunocompromised and chronically ill people, or those already suffering from post-COVID illnesses. COVID precautions and considered access methods create an environment of care that allows disabled people to feel safe attending the exhibition.
It is regrettable that there are no Scottish/Scotland-based artists in the exhibition –selected artists are based in England, Canada and the US. There was initial difficulty finding artists whose work fit within the media and crip frameworks explored; disabled visual artists, particularly in Scotland, are missing from the archives. NDACA is a useful resource but is largely focused on England (NDACA, 2023). Edinburgh-based artist Andrew Gannon, whose work was shown at Fruitmarket Gallery last year, would have
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been an excellent inclusion – had this work been discovered earlier in the research process (Fruitmarket, 2023).
However, this exhibition clearly rectifies the glaring omission of disabled artists and audiences from the gallery. It proposes an access ideology, achieved through interdependence, criticality and kinship. Generator Projects is vital to succeeding in this objective – the gallery hosts a vibrant, grassroots community in Dundee, and its organisational commitment to improving access is unique within the city. This setting provides opportunities for disabled people to see themselves represented in visual art, to claim crip space and crip identity and to consider how we may provide for each other as a community. Liz Crow stated that identifying as crip was:
a way of recognizing each other, ... naming the shared experience. You might have a group of people with incredibly different impairments, but ... where we sat in society, the barriers we were facing ... we were coming together as a political force to challenge them (2022).
As evidenced, there is a dearth of suitable opportunities for disabled artists; this exhibition ignites conversation on this subject, at an institutional and individual level. In A Seat at the Table, A Slice of the Pie: Crip Kinship Through Visual Art, the art is the access methodology. Although seating may seem simple, it is radical in the contemporary gallery space – which rarely allows for rest. All video pieces have embedded subtitles, this is clearly a choice made by artists who, through their own disability, are more keenly aware of the possible access needs of others. Ensuring accessibility for other disabled people, with differing impairments, as well as for ourselves, is interdependence in practice. This is crip kinship.
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