Why Disability Art Matters in the Age of COVID-19
Of what possible point is disability art when real bodies are at risk globally? Is such art a luxury at best and superfluous at worst? In this talk, drawing on a range of examples from my work as a curator as well as a disability studies scholar who teaches graphic medicine, I will discuss the ways in which disability representation in visual art reaffirms concepts vital to an understanding of disability as a source of knowledge, identity, and resistance. This talk will discuss art/representation that:
- Underscores the social and economic context of caregiving
- Understands “crip time” as a way of resisting old stereotypes about disability AND normative ways of associating productivity with human value
- Underscores disability workarounds as a kind of crip innovation from which we all benefit
- Invites us to understand embodiment as a wide range of possibility, even as it acknowledges the realities of pain, loss, and grief in the face of change
Email tdavies@nd.edu to register.