Abstract:
To understand disability requires adaptation and thinking beyond what is normal. There are psychological barriers to disability that run deep into the fabric of society. These barriers are often silent and unspoken, those with disabilities experience feeling shunned from society. It is hard to understand unless you actually experience it yourself. Disability studies are a relatively new field of study emerging in the 1980s; its main concerns are issues relating to those with disabilities. Disability studies has coined the term ‘ableism’, which is the discrimination against disabled people in society (Millet- Gallant and Howie 2). Ableism describes discrimination against disabled people in favour of able-bodied people, for example; In Felicity Reid’s recent article in the North Shore Times; Play date welcomes boy back, she recounts a case of discrimination against six-year old Charlie McKendry who is wheel chair bound with cerebral palsy and his mum Kirsten. The pair were told to leave the Takapuna Beach playground in April 2017, because Charlie had experienced a seizure as they arrived at the park. Reid says, “Two other mothers told McKendry that Charlie, 6, should go away, because he was frightening their children”(1). They did leave, however Kirsten recounted the discriminatory incident to the Hauraki Corner Residents Group Facebook page and received a lot support from the community about the situation (Reid 1). Most ableist attitudes are based on the intolerance of disability by the able-bodied society. Historically, the disabled are seen as a medical issue that has no place in society. This is the kind of attitude that disability studies aims to change. Disability art, too, is a newly recognised field of practice linked to disability studies, as it shares the same concerns. Artists with a disability do not necessarily produce it; however, the role of disability art, it seems, is to be reflexive and challenging to our contemporary society in order to raise awareness of the discriminatory and social identity issues around disability. Disability art is not outsider art, although some outsider artists do fit into this genre. Outsider art recognises artists who are selftaught, often mentally disabled and eccentric or misfits who have no formal training. I define my current field of research and artistic practise as Disability art. Disabled people are a marginalised part of society that need help to become more accepted and recognised as a social identity within society. Such art aims to change society’s longheld misconceptions and discrimination against the disabled. I am inspired by the fact that artists have the avenue to seed social change. Art talks without words and the truth is there to see. I also believe the spirit of the artist resides more powerfully in disability art because it is unspeakable. In this essay, I commence by briefly citing historical artists Pieter Bruegel, Diego Velazques, Antoine Trouvain, Paul Strand and author Jacque Derrida who all depict disability in their works. Then I introduce a discussion outlined by authors; Anne Millett-Gallant and Elizabeth Howie in Disability and Art History 2017 that suggests that art history as a field of study, has chosen to over-look the presence of disability in the analysis of art and the possible reason for this. Then I look at disability studies as it views disability in identity politics against a backdrop of ableism. Next, I introduce the phenomenological idea that the spirit of the artist resides in their art. Then I discuss the physical, psychological and mental issues of four disabled artists; Agnes Martin, Frida Kahlo, Judith Scott and outsider artist Henry Darger and the presence of the disabled spirit in their art. Then I look at the collaborative work of non-disabled photographer Joel Peter Witkin and disabled writer Anne Millett- Gallant, whose work distorts and perverts the ideals of disability art as it is seen to exploit disability and death. I then discuss the collaboration between disabled artist Alison Lapper and non-disabled artist Marc Quinn that challenges society’s ideas about disability and beauty by raising public debate. After that, I introduce the non-disabled artist Kader Attier, whose art deals with those disfigured by war and social injustices of the past. Finally, I include my own analysis on disability art and ableism, concluding with a comparison of the positive and negative ways that disability art is constructing a new future for those living and dealing with disability.