The Future is Loading Zine by Shape Arts

2020 has been a paradigm shift for many, a year like no other. A time of raw hardship and sudden turmoil in the midst of which we have witnessed gestures of care and support capable of reminding us: we need each other.

the streets in an assertion of grief and outrage. In this time of reflection and learning, a plurality of realisations has occurred. With this, widespread unrest and demands for change have arisen.

More than our lives, entire structures have been For many disabled and thrown into the air by marginalised people, what we are living though, familiar with adversity, revealing the outlines witnessing the world come of a starkly unequal to a halt in a matter of world. In the process, a days has paradoxically pandemic of health has generated hope. Hope that, radicalised mainstream for once, the world might debate, and we are no take greater heed of what longer shying away from it means to be shut away, discussing the pre-existing impoverished and excluded. pandemics of racism, of gender discrimination, As the crisis has evolved barriers to inclusion and and its shockwaves advancement, of gaping travelled, we find it inequality, isolation, and acting as a catalyst for disenfranchisement. The many other significant list goes on. conversations, in the home, the workplace, or whilst, in Set against this uncertain the case of the Black Lives and restless backdrop, Matter movement, taking to where risk of greater

exclusion battles with unique opportunities for change, we at Shape are looking to the future as an act of hope.

exciting and talented artists from society’s margins, we aim to give voice to those less heeded and recognised in cultural spaces, so that this period For people who are of reimagining is, at least in marginalised in the present part, owned, informed, and day, facing discrimination described by them. and barriers to access, imagining the future can be Taking current conditions an act of radical defiance. into account, and aware It is the act of making a that many people will claim to a space that is continue shielding, this otherwise denied – and for exhibition will be hosted once, marginalised people online, a place where many have the agency to place of us now live for hours of themselves at its centre. the day. Speaking to this online experience, then, the With this in mind, our future is loading. exhibition projects into tomorrow the visions And as it loads, these of those we believe are artists, based primarily in integral to the construction the UK, Canada, and USA, of something better. remind us to question Artists, acting as society’s whose ‘normal’ the ‘new antennae in many ways, normal’ might be. What will must play an essential role be its instincts, attitudes, in this project. They will and mechanisms? What will help us imagine, or rather, joy, love, and pain look like? reimagine, the way ahead. Who will have access to it And in bringing together and whose interests will it 2

serve? Will it be just, or just like before? “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible” – Toni Cade Bambara, author, documentary film-maker and activist. “Institutions would do well to heed the mood of change around us: perhaps the coming question is not so much whether they’ll finally let us in, but whether we take them with us?” – Tony Heaton OBE, sculptor, disability rights campaigner and founder of the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive.

exclusion battles with unique opportunities for change, we at Shape are looking to the future as an act of hope.

TRIGGER WARNINGS With warmest thanks to Shape Open Patron Yinka Shonibare CBE (RA) for his continued input and support.

This exhibition is intended for persons 16 years of age and above. Some of the films and the pathyouwalk website contain sexual swear words.

Shape is proud to be a National Portfolio Organisation, funded and supported by Arts Council England.

For Parts, a film by Panteha Abareshi, contains flashing images and stroboscopic light and sound effects.

We would also like to thank: Able Zine Action Space Fiona Slater Guts Gallery Kirkwood Brothers Liam Hevey Jacqui Beckford Marcel Hirshman Raisa Kabir Rayvenn D’Clark Submit to Love Studios

Not Better Yet, a film by Panteha Abareshi, contains flashing images, stroboscopic light and fast-changing sound effects. There are images and sounds referencing trauma and distress.

This exhibition was a genuine and exciting collaboration between the curators, Elinor Hayes and Jeff Rowlings, and all of the artists involved, to whom we extend our warmest thanks. The Future is Loading – Shape Open 2020 Catalogue © Shape Arts. Cover Designs: Kirkwood Brothers. Design: Claudia Walder and Tino Mara. Images © Artists unless otherwise stated.

Visitors to The Path You Walk website created by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, will encounter flashing images and light effects. There are images and text referencing trauma and distress. An Ode to Marge Simpson, a film by Laura Lulika, contains flickering images and references distress. Transitions : A movement in Spirit, a filmed performance by Tobi Adebajo, contains flickering images and references distress. Cripple, a film by Christopher Samuels, contains descriptions some may find distressing; it also contains flickering text. Call Me By Your DWP Number, a film by WHINEGUMS + BABEWORLD, contains descriptions some may find distressing; it also contains flashing images. If you would like further information before experiencing the exhibition, or sharing it with others online, please contact exhibitions@shapearts.org.uk and we will get back to you as quickly as we can during the exhibition run; if you can provide us with specific queries this will be helpful.

Shape London is a Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under number 01468164 and registered as a Charity number 279184

TRIGGER WARNINGS With warmest thanks to Shape Open Patron Yinka Shonibare CBE (RA) for his continued input and support.

This exhibition is intended for persons 16 years of age and above. Some of the films and the pathyouwalk website contain sexual swear words.

Shape is proud to be a National Portfolio Organisation, funded and supported by Arts Council England.

For Parts, a film by Panteha Abareshi, contains flashing images and stroboscopic light and sound effects.

We would also like to thank: Able Zine Action Space Fiona Slater Guts Gallery Kirkwood Brothers Liam Hevey Jacqui Beckford Marcel Hirshman Raisa Kabir Rayvenn D’Clark Submit to Love Studios

Not Better Yet, a film by Panteha Abareshi, contains flashing images, stroboscopic light and fast-changing sound effects. There are images and sounds referencing trauma and distress.

Shape London is a Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under number 01468164 and registered as a Charity number 279184

Access Shapeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach is to strike a balance between making accessible to all audiences the aesthetic of the works whilst conveying key information; accordingly in order to do so some details are emphasised in different ways across the different access formats. Where we have been able to embed the access we have done so, and with the exhibition being hosted online, some access formats are available in linked locations during the exhibition run. This includes British Sign Language support and audio description. There is a text only version of www.thepathyouwalk.com with interactive links.

Elise creates free-standing and wall-mounted sculptural works using stuffed, drawn or painted fabrics, often using stock images of people and animals found on the internet. The result is a startling mixture of the sophisticated and ungainly, with the apparently mundane transformed into something special and memorable. Eliseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is autobiographical and builds on a mixture of Texan cultural iconography, dark humour, and deeply personal, introspective imagery as a self-therapeutic mechanism that shifts between catharsis, deconstruction, and healing.

This zine booklet will be made available in printed and digital format to support the exhibition as well. If you have questions regarding access during the exhibition, please contact exhibitions@shapearts.org.uk and we will get back to you as quickly as we can; if you can provide us with specific queries this will be helpful. Descriptions of all the images in the zine are available as alt text in the digital version, available through our website. Where possible, we have tried to capture the wording used by the artists to describe their practice and views. Shape works to the Social Model of Disability, working to remove societal barriers to access and to tackle discrimination. For more information on this and supporting resources please go to www.shapearts.org.uk/resources

Cocoa (2020)

Hecate (2020)

Rabbit (2020)

‘Hecate’ depicts playful, theatrical scene presenting a conglomeration of ancient and fantastical cultural motifs that indicate the presence of spiritual and physical healing, safety, and bounty. The historical Hecate figure - guardian of the home and purveyor of folk medicine represents private/social tendencies to seek out alternative medicine when contemporary scientific methods don’t hold concrete answers.

‘Rabbit’ focuses on the symbolism of thriving hopefulness; in a surreal setting of undisturbed daffodils, the rainbow-lit rabbit optimistically creates a bridge between organic and artificial life. Playing on childlike imagery, Rabbit highlights a personal inclination towards the comforts of life within the natural world in times of global gloom.

Hecate (2020)

Rabbit (2020)

Hayden Stern is a Seattle-based artist whose often figurative work centres around themes of embodiment, disability, gender, and madness, explored through the concepts of monstrosity, ecology, and dreamscapes. Haydenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work explores mythologized depictions of othered bodies in intimate, ordinary moments. By centring the marginalised bodies of their community in their work - fat bodies, transgender bodies, disabled bodies, and traumatised bodies - Hayden reaffirms these communities as worthy of loving, complex representation. Their work balances the groundedness of touch and embodiment with fantastical motifs that pull the art out of pure realism.

Night Swim (2020) Container (2020)

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley is an artist living and working in London, creating works that seek to archive Black trans experience. Through an innovative use of technology, Danielle compels us to imagine our lives in environments that centre our bodies: those living, those that have passed, and those that have been forgotten.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Path You Walkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (2020) I hope these pages get to who needs them. Depending on your identity, the options may open up to you. You may deserve choice and you may not yet have earned trust in your own choices. Here those that have earned the right to choose will gain access to what they need... Others must only listen. They have taken far too much already and here, instead, we insist that we give them the bare minimum. Wonder where you stand? 12

Panteha Abareshi is an artist based in Los Angeles, California. Panteha’s practice is rooted in their existence living with sickle cell zero beta thalassemia - a genetic blood disorder that causes debilitating pain. The coalescence of Panteha’s identity means she is fully immersed in ‘Otherness,’ by her own definition. Through her work, Panteha pushes back against the lack of representation endemic in the arts and is able to discuss the complexities of living within a body that is highly monitored, constantly examined, and made to feel like a specimen. Taking images of recognisable human forms and reducing them to gestural shapes, Panteha juxtaposes her own body’s objectification and dissection.

For Parts (2020)

‘For Parts’ - Panteha created this VHS video work during quarantine using footage from a performance earlier in the year. The video contemplates the emotional and bodily changes that occur as a result of receiving medical implants and prosthetics. By exploring her own body as inorganic, Panteha outlines the ways in which non-disabled standards of performance, of appearance, and behaviour dictate what we consider “human” and what we consider “subhuman.” Tracing her experience, Panteha exposes the consequences of this systemic segregation in which the disabled and sick experience is ostracised. The performance and audio, recorded during a hospital visit, force the audience to reckon with the binary between body and machine, organic and inorganic; is that a heartbeat or a machine? In unpicking this liminal space, Panteha is further making a claim about her own lived experience. ‘Again’ - Part of a series of 2D works created while bed-bound during quarantine. ‘Again’ documents Panteha’s experience with disability as non-linear and frustrating; accepting the perpetual state of reckoning she lives in as her body deteriorates. ‘Not Better Yet’ - Shot on Super 8 and VHS film. This performance cuts between audio of doctors and nurses recorded during a hospital stay and clips of Panteha contorting her own body in painful, performative ways. The audio documents the disrespect, disregard, and lack of understanding Panteha experienced; the feeling of being both emotionally and physically unsafe. It sits in direct contrast to Panteha’s own performance which, though painful, demonstrates self-control and agency, making all the more stark the powerlessness engendered by “mainstream” medicine and healthcare.

Again (2020)

Not Better Yet (2019)

Again (2020)

Not Better Yet (2019)

Romily Alice Walden is a transdisciplinary artist whose work centres a queer, disabled perspective on the fragility of the body. Their practice spans sculpture, installation, video, curation, and printed matter, all of which is undertaken with a socially engaged and research-led working methodology. They work both individually and collectively as a member of Sickness Affinity Group; a group of sick, disabled and care-giving art workers and activists who work on the topic of sickness/disability, care, and labour conditions.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Notes From the Underlandsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (2019) Notes From The Underlands is a performative text from the depths of queer disability culture. It is both a future-orientated vision of a sick, disabled, and care-giving Utopia and an urgent call to action in the now. The text is performed through video, audio, large-scale print, and subtitles; challenging the notion that the body must be physically present (and abled) in order to perform. 18

Seren Metcalfe is a Yorkshire-born but London-based multidisciplinary artist and writer. Her research spans the themes of time, labour, energy, routine, and structure. Interested in the ways the body navigates space, Seren frequently mobilises parallels between cityscapes and landscapes or the Natural and the Mechanical in her work. Further exploring fame, television, consumerism, and class, Seren weaves her own memories into her work, creating her own language with which to speak about personal experience. Seren is the Founder of the Working Class Creatives Database, working to counteract the absence of people from working class backgrounds in the arts through platforming, collaboration, and resource sharing.

‘The Go Fuck Yourself Choir’ (2019) Lit up by smartphone torches, a Choir of voices repeat the words ‘Go Fuck Yourself’. Guided by thorough research in much of her work, the Go Fuck Yourself Choir is the embodiment of Seren’s otherwise suppressed urge to react and respond to her immediate surroundings. Although initially envisioned as a formal choral piece, Seren’s choice to use volunteers and instruct them herself ultimately enriches the sentiment of the piece, which is not bashful in its commentary on tone policing and resource accessibility within the arts. 20

Bobby Parker is a writer and visual artist based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire in the UK. Born in 1982 to a working-class family, Bobby finds inspiration in his upbringing, mental illness, disability, and issues with addiction. He has taught for the Poetry School and given talks about mental illness, namely Borderline Personality Disorder and overcoming trauma through art therapy. Bobby properly started pursuing visual arts once he had his own space to create, painting abstract and figurative images and experimenting with photography, drawing, sculpture, film, and music.

Red Boots Goes Shopping (2020)

Unusual Side Effects (2020)

I Wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Let You Give Up (2020)

Red Boots Goes Shopping (2020)

Unusual Side Effects (2020)

I Wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Let You Give Up (2020)

A self-taught artist, Sam is well known for her detailed line drawings and unique illustration style. Buildings, people, and animals become curiously crooked and contorted under her guidance. The selfdescribed ‘Queen of Wonky,’ Sam will tell you how she could only draw matchstick people before her brain injury. Her work now is intensely detailed, with an inimitable style that makes it instantly recognisable. In Charge (2020) ‘In Charge’ is Sam’s first embroidery work, inspired by the 1996 photograph ‘Effnik’ by Yinka Shonibare CBE from the Autograph archive, originally commissioned by Autograph. Yinka is the Shape Open Patron, so we are proud to be continuing a conversation initiated 24

by him over twenty years ago; a conversation about colonialism, racism, and inequality. In inserting into the visual canon a disruptive and subversive iconography, Yinka aimed to critique and satirise the photograph’s context. The work was created in a project-based collaboration between Submit to Love Studios and Autograph gallery, ‘Common Threads,’ which you can view online. Artists from Submit to Love Studios were invited to recreate in textiles photographs from Autograph’s archive. Shape works closely with both Autograph and Headway East London, who run Submit to Love Studios, so Sam’s work really symbolises more than her own practice. It threads together (pun intended) the work of these impressive and important organisations, with whom we are proud to work!

Left: Yinka Shonibare, Untitled (Effnik), 1997. Commissioned by Autograph, London

Sam Jevon, based in London, began creating work at Submit to Love Studios in 2009. A mum of two, she began attending three years after sustaining a brain injury in a car accident, which affected her speech, dexterity, eyesight, and balance.

Left: Yinka Shonibare, Untitled (Effnik), 1997. Commissioned by Autograph, London

‘Tales of Tresses’ Drawing on her own roots as an Iranian woman, and her interest in feminism, Maral explored the issue of the hijab [veil]. As a woman in Iran, you are not allowed to uncover your hair or talk about feminism or sexuality as these are ‘forbidden matters.’ Looking at this problem from outside, Maral discovered that hair, as a material, could represent the long-term political struggle that existed in Iran. Maral explored this conceptually by creating a series of brooches with her own and other friends’ hair. The brooch symbolizes their own individual characters and personality coming together, and the stories that they, as women, reflect upon.

Maral Mamaghani graduated with an MA from the School of Jewellery and Silversmithing from Birmingham City University in 2017. During her time at BCU, Maral created work that drew on her experience with feminism, oppression, and the forced wearing of the hijab [veil] in Iran as a Deaf Iranian woman. Leaving Iran and studying in the UK gave Maral a new perspective on the issues surrounding women’s rights. She began to use human hair as a material within her work, the hair representing the long-term political struggle that exists in Iran. 26

Rudy Loewe is a visual artist and arts educator whose work focuses on themes of gender, sexuality, black histories, and colonialism. Using firsthand experiences, interviews, and archival material, their work uplifts voices that are rarely given a platform. Rudy is concerned with questions such as: who are the authors of history? Whose narratives are seen as objective? How do we preserve our own legacies? Rudy works with painting, drawing, printmaking, and self-publishing, often utilising formats that provide greater accessibility to make their work easily disseminated.

Their approach to text in their work references Jamaican sign painting, protest placards, and banners. This can be seen in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We Been Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, which uses bright colours and hand drawn lettering to speak to the AfroCarribean diaspora and the histories of Black resistance in the UK. Having organised in activist and community spaces over the last decade, Rudy is motivated by the potential for art as an activist tool. They see their artistic practice as a way of engaging people in critical themes, raising awareness of issues and creating community space.

Overleaf, Rudyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s large scale painting points to moments of resistance in recent Black history in the UK. It highlights the Black women who have been at the forefront of anti-racist protests, dating back to the Caribbean women who came as nurses during the Windrush generation. Black women who protested after the murder of Kelsey Cochrane; who marched after the New Cross fire; and who continue to fight against racist borders and deportations. The women continue out of the frame as they continue to fight. 28

We Been Here (2019)

Andrew Omoding is a Ugandan-British artist living in London. His work is intuitive and instinctive. Andrew creates large-scale sculptural forms by exploring his studio for buried treasures and using his tacit knowledge of form, shape, and construction to add and discard elements as he works. Building his creations through systematic layering, wrapping, and attaching, Andrew often uses textiles, patterns, and textures to complete a work. Much of Andrew’s practice involves storytelling and performance, incorporating music and both written and spoken language. Andrew weaves, sews, threads, constructs, hammers and screws materials together merging with and becoming part of the work while simultaneously singing and telling stories. Andrew’s work is personal, sometimes autobiographical and always intriguing. This installation was part of Andrew’s residency at Camden Art Centre London in June 2019.

It’s my work, come see come see (2020)

Yasmeen Thantrey is a London-based artist whose practice explores cultural identity, stereotypes, and problems she has encountered growing up as a South Asian in the UK. Consciously embedding her identity and perspective into her work, Yasmeen further challenges feminist notions of body hair and diet culture through the eyes of a brown girl, using photography, print, performance, film, installations, and soft sculptures. Central to her practice - which is innately socio-political and, therefore, community-focused - is collaboration. Through meaningful creative exchange, Yasmeen’s work navigates both art activism and performance, acknowledging the centrality of the audience’s response and gaze to the narrative being unravelled. She aims to play and dismantle power structures through humorous loaded work that purposefully interrupts a white cube and institutional environment.

‘Break the Internet’ (2020) A print of the artist dressed as Kim Kardashian West - recreating the magazine cover that ‘broke the internet’. By hanging this work from a window, it aims to disrupt the natural flow of society, and thus, demand space in a world that oppresses fat women of colour. 32

Arts Emergency is an award-winning mentoring charity and support network. The organisation helps young people without connections follow their passions and navigate their way into higher education and the creative and cultural industries. Founded by Josie Long and Neil Griffiths in 2013 as a small grassroots project, Arts Emergency has blossomed into a community of 7,000 professionals. All of Arts Emergency’s members have pledged to support marginalised young people through sharing advice, free cultural activities and work experience opportunities. Arts Emergency works for a society in which every young person has the chance to flourish and contribute to the culture in which they live.

The Future is Another Place (2015)

This banner was created by an Arts Emergency volunteer in 2015 for the ‘Arts Emergency Response Centre’ exhibition at The Cass, London. 34

The Future is Another Place (2015)

This banner was created by an Arts Emergency volunteer in 2015 for the ‘Arts Emergency Response Centre’ exhibition at The Cass, London. 34

Tobi Adebajo is an anti-disciplinary creator whose practice draws from all the senses and relies upon meaningful collaboration to create work that centralises diasporic experiences and honours the power of identity at the same time.

stills from film

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Transitions : A movement in Spiritâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (2020) A recollection of journeys in Spirit. Leaving your presumptions & assumptions of bodies, at the door, witness embodiments in textures that pay homage to the form/less vibrations of life, pain & movements in flux. 36

stills from film

Laura Lulika is a crip (sick+disabled) artist and researcher. Working predominantly with video, sound and performance, their practice explores themes of care, sexuality, labour, sickness and performativity in the everyday. Their work is driven by the rhythms, movement, and rituals within daily activity. Looking at accessibility from various perspectives, Lulika attempts to work outside of common capitalist artworld structures in liminal spaces that are not controlled by structures of oppression. Lulika has worked with many community groups including senior-citizen dancers, people with learning disabilities and urban beekeepers.

‘An Ode to Marge Simpson’ (or how I taught myself to speak again by watching the Real Housewives) (2018) An autobiographical work which deals with voice-loss due to chronic illness. After losing their voice for over a year due to a combination of health issues, Laura received vocal therapy. However, they found that watching The Real Housewives while housebound is what really helped them regain their voice and agency. The work celebrates The Real Housewives franchises as a rare example in popular culture where women’s voices are prioritised, while at the same time questioning the privilege these women hold and therefore the healthcare they have access to in comparison to many of the viewers. It draws on GIF reaction culture and the thriving online crip community and features questions the artist was asked by their vocal therapist.

Jeff Kasper is an artist and educator who works in-between design, media, and public pedagogy to facilitate participatory experiences, creative curricula, and conceptual social spaces. His current research explores how “trauma-informed education and the ethics of nonviolence impact the design process, collaboration, and learning – especially for the health and wellbeing of queer and disabled folks”. Over the years, his work has been dedicated to building cultures of support as an artist working in arts management, community health, and social planning.

Prototypes for white flags (2016)

Jeff’s ongoing ‘things remembered’ series is a catalogue of keepsakes and trophies engraved with testimonials about the invisibility of pain and love, failure and becoming in relationships. Through this project, Jeff explores the potential everyday, inanimate objects have to tell the stories of what otherwise remains hidden between people. The ‘prototypes for white flags’ series similarly develops on this examination of objects. The white flag is an internationally recognised protective sign of truth or ceasire. In subverting the flag’s usual call for surrender, Jeff asks what would happen if it was deemed a symbol of truce; of collaboration rather than defeat. 40

Things remembered (2018; 2020 edition)

Prototypes for white flags (2016)

Things remembered (2018; 2020 edition)

Ellie Harman-Taylor, aka Whinegums, is a London-based artist, weaver, writer, and lecturer. Her practice navigates the experience of living with mental illness and disability. Ellie uses the metaphor of the body as a processing machine to explore how coping mechanisms can develop and aid survival in circumstances of marginalisation and suffering. Working with sculpture, video, performance, and comedy, Ellie’s work is frequently collaborative, including the lecture series, ‘Don’t Worry I’m Sick and Poor,’ which she co-created with Babeworld at the Royal College of Art, London.

Babeworld, comprised of Ashleigh Williams and Georgina Tyson, is a collaboration which aims to demystify the processes of creativity often kept elusive in an otherwise exclusive ‘art world.’ Focusing on themes of political and social identity, Ashleigh and Georgina’s exploration of disability, accessibility, mental health, sex work, and poverty has firmly grounded their practice in the corridors of the everyday. By creating an accessible critical framework through formatting and use of digestible language, their practice makes space for new dialogue which, rather than sitting within existing artistic narratives, offers an alternative. ‘Call Me By Your DWP Number’ (2019) Call Me By Your DWP Registration Number is a collaboration between Babeworld and Whinegums. Visually referencing the classic coming of age movies of the 90s and 00s, this pink and dreamy world filled with objects (with the occasional tacky zoom-in) satirically romanticises the parts about living with a disability that are often vilified: using weed as a form of pain management and disability benefits as a form of employment.

The work begins with the DWP automated message, stirring a sense of dread, much like hearing your alarm tone through someone else’s phone. Ellie is portrayed as the stereotypical lead, purposefully placed on screen as a statement of palatibility. As the holding music plays, Ellie recounts some personal thoughts. In turn, anchoring the situations and struggles of the “in-between.” In-between referrals, in-between waiting lists, and in-between treatments.

The video in its final edits uses iMovie default transitions and glitter gifs to reimagine a classic movie aesthetic, delivering a more low-culture and low-resolution piece, which is intune with the artists’ lived experiences and working class background.

Sasha Saben Callaghan is an Edinburgh-based artist, writer, and disability rights campaigner. Her work employs collage techniques, iconographic imagery, and juxtaposition to unravel tensions and contradictions found within the politically-charged parameters of everyday life.

‘Renewal’ (2020) Like everyone else, Covid-19 has been uppermost in my thoughts for months and I wanted to show something positive emerging from it. I’ve used the image of this wee boy in my work several times – not just because I like it so much but because although he must have died decades ago, seeing him keeps his memory alive. 46

‘Harvest’ (2020) One of the most horrible aspects of the pandemic has been the term ‘harvesting’ to describe the number of excess deaths. I wanted to reclaim the word and whilst the young man in this image may represent the ‘grim reaper’, the butterfly resting on the scythe he is holding symbolises immortality.

Ezra Benus is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and curator based in New York, USA. In his work, Ezra addresses a range of themes by drawing on his background in Jewish studies, art history, and disability, including: time, relationships of care, pain, and illness. For Ezra, the ‘Self’ is a site where political, social, and spiritual forces collide, as bodily knowledge and social models of normativity are untangled and extended to meet others’ experiences in tandem with his own.

Noah Benus, also based in New York, uses photography to explore people through the prism of their relationships; with each other, their environments, and with the camera itself. Noah’s work often reveals overlooked moments through alternative methods of portraiture, photojournalism, and studio works. Relying on both analog and digital formats, Noah seeks to educate and advocate for justice and accessibility.

‘Illness finds us all Care unfortunately does not’ (2020) to tally only numbers without counting the breaths taken the lives touched the same air carried and cared and filtered between us

Essay continued p. 56

‘Illness finds us all Care unfortunately does not’ (2020) to tally only numbers without counting the breaths taken the lives touched the same air carried and cared and filtered between us

Essay continued p. 56

The Kirkwood Brothers, Jonny and Jordon, are Glasgow-based artists whose work often revolves around neurodiversity and mental health in an effort to dispel related stereotypes. Working collaboratively as brothers, Jonny and Jordon create art through conversation, re-capturing the popular culture from their childhood. Humour is a central vehicle to their practice, affording both brothers agency over their own experiences. Much of the content of Jonny and Jordonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is still taboo among communities in Glasgow: disability, mental health, suicide. Though their work might at first appear naive, it performs as a vehicle for conversations about these topics unravel. Jonny and Jordon prefer to let their work speak for itself, avoiding the pitfalls artists often face when trying to explain their work in written language. They believe this often makes their work feel more relatable and accessible and affords the audience an intimate and individual relationship with their art.

The future (2020)

Everything is wrong (2020)

Nothing is right (2020)

The future (2020)

Everything is wrong (2020)

Nothing is right (2020)

Christopher Samuel is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in identity and disability politics, often echoing the many facets of his own lived experience. Seeking to interrogate his personal understanding of identity as a disabled person impacted by inequality and marginalisation, Christopher responds with

urgency, humour, and poetic subversiveness within his work. This approach makes his work accessible to a wider audience, allowing others to identify and relate to a wider spectrum of human experience.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Crippleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (2019) Cripple explores the idea of idleness in the context of our reality in which disabled people have been pushed further to the margins of society as a direct consequence of austerity. The weaponisation of productivity under austerity means many view disabled people as lazy or idle and not deserving of help. Without support, however, their human rights are compromised, disabling them from participating in society and forcing them into a cycle of marginalisation. 52

Charlie J. Meyers is an artist working in figurative abstraction and portraiture, creating work from his studio in Philadelphia. Charlie’s work often focuses on relationships and pleasure as a form of political resistance, centring the concept of ‘erotic grief.’

‘The Tender collection’ (2020) This body of work is a collection of figurative watercolours inspired by the concept of Spring Fever in quarantine. Spring fever invokes a sense of restless desire for romance and social connection. While stuck in quarantine, Charlie has turned to personal, archival material: memories, photographs, and films. Painted on hot-pressed watercolour paper with floral and earth tones, the paintings represent a tender reflection on love.

Felt (2020)

Quarantine Nap (2020)

Don’t Hide (2020)

Felt (2020)

Quarantine Nap (2020)

Don’t Hide (2020)

Continued from p.48

‘Illness finds us all Care unfortunately does not’ As it always has been, illness is fraught with political notions of who and what is valued, deemed essential, and worthy of care. These works are continuations in our series ‘An Army Of The Sick Can’t Be Defeated’, a call to attention for prioritising care and communal aid. These images, taken during visits to the hospital for ongoing infusion treatments during a pandemic, have words superimposed that bridge our personal and intimate vantage to outward echoes and connection to illness and disability as a communal experience. The more that Sick and Disabled and Queer and Mad people, especially multiply marginalised communities by systemic racism, are forced by policy and social norms to stay separated, segregated, institutionalised and out of public conciousness, the worse off our whole society is.

currently on a global scale. For some, masks have become about personal freedoms as opposed to the responsibility of communal care. For some, reopening is about going to bars and socialising while many of us have to remain home bound. For some, deaths are only numbers that do not carry the same influence as the numbers in a fluctuating stock market. For most, those of us sick and disabled along with prisoners and labourers are considered disposable and therefore deemed unfit or unworthy to participate in this expedited re-opening of society.

The irresponsible and reprehensible behavior by leadership in the US and UK, in deciding to “re-open” society while an ongoing pandemic rages, is ableism in action on a large scale with known and unforeseen dire consequences for the future of our communities. Those of us deemed “high risk” are but numbers, not worthy of life in a capitalist labour-driven sense. Illness and disability are expected Illness is continually referenced to be private and intimate, but through tallies of numbers and it’s a unifying experience among statistics; of deaths, hospital all humans, now and forever. We bed availabilities, infection rates, are experiencing this awareness unemployment numbers all devoid 56

Continued from p.48

of humanity, and lives affected and attached to the tallies. Who has the right to decide whose lives are counted and worth caring about and for?

oppression that create intolerable care gaps that are responsible for killing people. The global experience of illness is revealing on a large scale the ways in which our dysfunctional society gives Who is cared for in times of priority, as usual, to the privileged public illness is based on age, and those deemed economically race, presumed ability/health, and ‘fit’ for purpose. immigration status and impacted Drawing on legacies to inform by ableism, individualism, our future is vital because illness populism, and racism that has finds us all, but care unfortunately long pervaded our cultures of does not. These works make care. Covid-19, much like the reference to the similar ethos AIDS/HIV pandemic, has ongoing from those who have been disproportionate tolls on Black entangled in creating and fighting and Indigenous communities due for societal change, by centering to historic structural oppression communal care and equity. embedded in the social and economic fabric of racist and Leadership in government and ableist White Western cultures cultural organisations politicise and values. care and illness in relation to labour and the economy, exposing Medical racism and ableism an entrenched capitalist and are pervasive issues. The fascist belief that ‘work will set functions of these systems us free.’ The black triangles on have ramifications for dictating the image with the text, ‘An Army whose pain is deemed believable, Of The Sick Can’t Be Defeated’ is who receives treatment, and reference to the Nazi symbol for the quality and access to care. those deemed ‘work-shy’ or not Incarcerated individuals whose fit for work, including sick and lives are deemed less worthy disabled people, alongside other of care are forced to live and groups such as sex workers and work in abhorrent conditions Roma people. This symbol has and forced to produce items for been reclaimed by UK groups of profit of corporations. These are disabled people, similar to the the tools of racist and ableist reclaiming of the pink triangle as 58

queer symbology used in Silence = Death collaborative work bringing attention to the ongoing AIDS pandemic.

These legacies are learnings for us, and we further the call for a persistence of Queer, Crip, BIPOC, communal resistance, action, and rest. We call for a future centred on access to care and communal and mutual aid, through these ongoing communal experiences of illness and disablement within our society. An Army Of The Sick Can’t Be Defeated.

In Gregg Bordowitz’s lectureperformance ‘Gimme Danger’, at Triple Canopy, a conversation on the ongoing experience of surviving with illness, made clear that certain histories of resistance are overwritten, but that we need to come together and expand the legacies of Written by Ezra and Noah Benus activism. Similarly, this harkens to the ethos of a ‘Queers Read This’ reader, published in 1990 with ACT UP, with the heading “Army of Lovers Cannot Lose”. The Black Panthers and Young Lords have similarly created a precedence of community and care-centred mutual aid through efforts to: abolish prisons; initiate research on Sickle Cell; centre Black and Brown communities’ education and access to food; ensure quality of life in housing justice and communal task forces for community safety. All the while, evoking Malcolm X’s famous adage of enacting change and building resistance ‘by any means necessary’, even if it means fighting for change from one’s quarantine or (sick) bed.

of humanity, and lives affected and attached to the tallies. Who has the right to decide whose lives are counted and worth caring about and for?

queer symbology used in Silence = Death collaborative work bringing attention to the ongoing AIDS pandemic.

RESOURCES

Books

The future is loading. Now is the time for action.

Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by Adrienne Maree Brown Shy Radicals: The antisystemic politics of the militant introvert by Hamja Ahsan

In putting this exhibition together, and arising from conversations with the artists about driving positive change in cultural spaces and wider society, we have compiled some links and resources. As these links are to third party content we acknowledge that they may not be accessible to all audiences, but we hope they prove useful to many and maintain the ethos of the exhibition and support its vision for change beyond the show. Online Resources Access Docs for Artists BSL Zone: Black Lives Matter Panic! Social Class, Taste and Inequalities in the Creative Industries report by Dr Orian Brook, Dr David O’Brien and Dr Mark Taylor, with Arts Emergency and Create London

Care Work: Dreaming disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi PiepznaSamarasinha Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People by Frances Ryan Disability Studies: A student’s guide edited by Colin Cameron Disability Visibility by Alice Wong The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe by Ellen Clifford Understanding Media: The extensions of man by Marshall McLuhan

Surviving Art School: An artist of colour toolkit by Rudy Loewe

Feminist Queer Crip by Alison Kafer

The Critical Fish: artist-led writing about arts and culture

Feminism Interrupted by Lola Olufemi

The Limping Chicken: The world’s most popular Deaf blog

How We Became Posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics by N. Katherine Hayles

Xenofeminism: A politics for alienation by Laboria Cuboniks Dolly Sen and Caroline Cardus’ Section 136: A radical mental health art action programme Drawn Poorly Zine Easy Read: George Floyd and Black Lives Matter by Jade French Easy Read: The Social Model of Disability by Shape Arts

An Accessibility Manifesto for the Arts by Carmen Papalia Awkwoods: Daniel Oliver’s dyspraxic adventures in participatory performance by Daniel Oliver Chronic Pain Zine

Articles

Feminist Healthcare Research Group

Medical Apartheid isn’t some far off myth: I’m Black and I almost died at White Memorial Hospital by Walela Nehanda

Madlove

Why Iranian women are wearing white on Wednesdays by Nassim Hatam

Not Going Back to Normal: A Disabled Artists Manifesto

The Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino

Working Class Resources from the Working Class Artists Database

Sick Woman Theory by Johanna Hedva

Medical Apartheid and the need to centre Black disability justice talk by Walela Nehanda

Outside Mental Health: Voices and visions of madness by Will Hall