Why is it so difficult to define yourself as a disabled artist?

Awkward Bastards symposium

Thursday 12 March 2015

Gill Nicol

lightsgoingon.com

Woman artist

Black artist

Disabled artist

Male (able-bodied, heterosexual) artist

Might it be because able-bodied people don't define themselves as able-bodied, so why label oneself as disabled?

It flags up difference, not acceptance?

(producer)

Increasingly, disabled artists do not want to/feel the need to define themselves as 'disabled' in the same way that in recent debates black writers have made it clear that they don't want the label 'black' just 'writer'. Why should you have to wear your disability on your sleeve in this way? The only time when it's relevant is when seeking funding or showing work as part of a specific disability event or festival.

(artist)

It’s not about disability, but more about bloody good art..

(curator)

I resist labelling myself any more than an artist (not visual artist, sculptor etc) - it feels as though it might be limiting, and make me more mindful of people’s preconceptions about what any of those roles are or what they mean.

(artist)

a collapsed field

A return to making

A desire to collaborate

Personalised accounts of art

A turn towards the body, the sensual – the experiential

‘Labyrinth of Living Exhibits’, curated by Aaron Williamson at the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, 2011

Labyrinth of Living Exhibits

Katherine Araniello, Labyrinth of Living Exhibits, BiPAP 1 (Living Experiment)

Judith Scott (1943 – 2005)

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BODIES OF WORK—‘INSIDER’ OR ‘OUTSIDER’—

PRODUCED ANYWHERE, AND UNDER ANY

CIRCUMSTANCES, IN THE PAST TWENTY YEARS

Matthew Higgs, Director, White Columns

Shinichi Sawada (1987-)

Thank you