Deaf Rage and Subversive Scribbling: The Show in which Disabled Artists Respond | art

“I “I had a lot of frustration about the diversity, equity and inclusion performance,” says coordinator Natalie Bobis. Bubis felt that the art world’s commitment to providing access for people with disabilities was too often performative rather than demonstrating a sincere commitment to change, so she decided to step down. But then came the opportunity to be an in-house curator for Disability Arts Online’s new exhibition space, and she felt like this was finally her chance to highlight the experiences of people with disabilities in art.

Her inaugural exhibition for dis_place is called “I Need to Be More Than Just a Lesson Learned.” Featuring the work of nine artists and groups working across a variety of media, it explores the ways in which disabled artists have struggled to access the art world and wider society.

Some of the pieces share how, even when artists with disabilities are commissioned for an inclusive show, accessibility is still often not available. Christine Sun Kim’s charcoal and oil pastel drawings, such as Tones of Deaf Anger, clearly show her anger at superficial or inadequate access, with drawings accompanied by phrases including “Curators who think it’s fair to split my salary fees with interpreters” and “Museums that don’t have deaf programs (and no deaf lecturers/teachers).”

Exquisite Corpse, a 2026 film by director Jamila Prowse, shows the artist having a conversation with her mother through the surreal game, reflecting the interconnectedness that underpins their creative practice. “Jamila talks about not being able to meet the demands of an artist as expected in the art world, someone who can meet firm deadlines, someone who can do it alone, and how that’s artificial anyway, because everyone is working with other people behind the scenes,” Bobis says.

The rules and constraints of the art world are explored in other works as well. Roll for Initiative by artist collective Babeworld uses rolling dice as a symbol for navigating the art world from a neurodivergent and mental health perspective. “It’s about the excitement of getting a commission, but then having to do that as a disabled artist, and how that can become a very difficult task when you can’t get out of bed, or can hardly brush your teeth,” says Babeworld.

The film outlines obstacles throughout the creative process, from the initial email to communication with curators, Zoom meetings, the physical labor of making the work, interacting with people socially, and whether artists will have the energy to do things on certain days.

Bella Milroy wrote and drew on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) envelopes in a striking example of reclaiming something familiar to many disabled people. “I think it’s a really interesting space to explore the ways in which disability has a private and public experience,” Milroy says, thinking about how envelopes get into a home, and how applications for benefits require sending private, sensitive information.

One Envelope explores the way disabled artists are sometimes expected to share difficult parts of their experiences. “There are challenges to this kind of engagement,” Milroy says, adding that it can bring disabled artists and their peers together, but “the other side of that is that you’re actually very exposed, and you’re put in situations where people see some of these difficult or hard-to-understand experiences, and that can be really vulnerable and difficult.”

The envelopes also speak to the idea of ​​how the benefits system is supposed to facilitate access and inclusion, but it is also problematic, especially in the context of contemporary threats of cuts to disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment (Pip), and the fear that can accompany landing a DWP envelope on a doormat.

What argument does the exhibition make to the art world about what true access and inclusion mean? Boobis feels it’s twofold. Firstly, there is the accessibility of the exhibition itself, with ‘easy-to-read’ text, audio descriptions and British Sign Language interpretation, for example. “We hope this sets a standard for other galleries in terms of the accessibility features available in their gallery,” she says. “This is a way to send a nice message about how we want to see things happen.”

Another hope is that the exhibition conveys the barriers that artists with disabilities face, and the gap between the performance of access and actual, meaningful inclusion. She also highlights how some works are about intimacy and joy, challenging narratives of pathos.

“I think disability is having a moment in the wider art world in terms of commissioning and exhibitions, but I hope it’s not just another performance or trend,” Bubis adds. “It would be good to see follow-up efforts in the form of proper anti-discrimination training in the art world, and in active support of broader struggles against funding cuts to Pip and Access to Work. [a government programme] That affects disabled artists and arts workers who are being programmed. I hope that by highlighting the experiences of artists with disabilities in the context of disability arts, the exhibition will in some way help this broader conversation.