ABOUT THE PROJECT
I chose to create a website for my midterm and final because I wanted to create a resource that can be used by others to discover artists they may otherwise have never heard of. At the same time, it presented me with an opportunity to dive deeper into my intersecting interests in art and disability culture. I sought to compile a database of individuals who created work in a variety of fields. Included in this project are painters, sculptors, comedians, musicians, performance artists, dancers, and illustrators. I primarily split the artists into two categories, “Visual Artists” and “Performing Artists,” so that it would be easier for someone to find information on the artists they are most interested in learning about. I recognize that these categories are imperfect, as there are many artists who fall outside this proposed binary or whose work overlaps both visual and performing arts. I welcome suggestions for how best to include the works of these artists.
Similarly, while I tried to make my project as inclusive as possible, I recognize that it is not comprehensive. After reading Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s article “Becoming Disabled” and excerpts from Simi Linton’s book “Claiming Disability,” I did not feel comfortable telling people’s stories without ensuring that I used the language they used to describe themselves. As Garland-Thomson writes, “What we call ourselves can also be controversial. Different constituencies have vibrant debates about the politics of self-naming. ‘People first’ language asserts that if we call ourselves ‘people with disabilities,’ we put our humanity first and consider our impairment a modification. Others claim disability pride by getting our identity right up front, making us ‘disabled people.’ Others, like many sign language users, reject the term ‘disability.’” (Garland-Thomson 3). Thus, I made the difficult decision to feature only artists who had their own websites. I made decisions on how to identify someone, whether to name their disability, and what pronouns to use based on the assumption that they had the power to author or at least review the information on their websites. Because of this, the project misses out on depicting the art of individuals without access to computers, artists who are part of larger organizations but do not have their own websites, and possibly individuals with certain disabilities. I recognize that this is problematic. In an attempt to remedy this, I have added a page where users are more than welcome to add artists not included.
While conducting research for this project, I realized that the real reason I wanted to feature artists with disabilities was to simultaneously highlight the work of these artists, which is all too often ignored or underappreciated, and to critique and change the way these artists are often discussed when they are acknowledged. There are many click-bait listicles out there with names like “We Can’t Believe What These Artists Can Do Despite Their Disabilities” and “Famous Artists You’d Be Shocked to Learn Had Disabilities.” And while one can argue that this means the work of artists with disability is being seen, these articles serve only to perpetuate the supercrip narrative. According to Eli Clare, “The nondisabled world is saturated with these stories: stories about gimps who engage in activities as grand as walking 2,500 miles or as mundane as learning to drive. They focus on disabled people ‘overcoming’ our disabilities. They reinforce the superiority of the nondisabled body and mind. They turn individual disabled people, who are simply leading their lives, into symbols of inspiration.” (Clare 2). Clare proceeds to describe how this obviates recognition of the material, social, and legal ableism that truly disables people. Additionally, Clare describes the potential harms of supercrip stories. He argues that to view disability as something to be overcome and that to posit those who achieve as heroic simultaneously pairs helplessness with disability. This leads to instutionalization, job discrimination, and various forms of oppression.
Disability studies centers the distinction between impairment and disability. Clare quotes theorist Michael Oliver twice, saying that he “defines impairment as ‘lacking part of or all of a limb, or having a defective limb, organism or mechanism of the body’” and that he “defines disability as ‘the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by a contemporary social organisation which takes no or little account of people who have physical [and/or cognitive/intellectual] impairments and thus excludes them from the mainstream of society.’” (Clare 6). I similarly want to emphasize that distinction in this project. My decision to call this project the “Artists with Disabilities Database” should not be read as a decision dependent on a medical categorization. Rather, it is a way to fight back against this categorization of bodies and a way to actively upset the ways that artists with physical, mental, and emotional impairments have been viewed because of their social, legal, and material oppression.
Works Cited​
Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. “Opinion | Becoming Disabled.” The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2016. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/opinion/sunday/becoming-disabled.html.
Clare, Eli et al. Exile and Pride : Disability, Queerness, and Liberation . Durham: Duke University Press, 2015. Web.
Linton, Simi. Claiming Disability Knowledge and Identity. New York: NYU Press, 1998. Print.