Sick
The exhibition Sick features works by artists who identify as disabled and/or chronically ill and thus wishes to bring the experience of illness and disability, often associated with the private, into the public sphere. In their practice and artworks, the artists explore the lived experience of illness/disability as that nexus of class, race and gender that is usually overlooked in discussions of intersectionality and political activism.
It is unpleasant to think that we will all become sick or disabled at some point. Non-disabled individuals and society collectively brush aside the thought of the inevitable, and at the same time also all those who are already facing it. The fear is not surprising, since capitalism equates the value of people with their productivity and the possibility of (ab)using their bodies for the purpose of capital. Meanwhile, it is pushing the disabled and the sick into poverty, and with the decline of social security, vulnerable groups are becoming even more invisible to the rest of society. Disability is a concept of the lived experience in an ableist society and the individual鈥檚 embodiment, not medical diagnosis and legal definition.
Embodiment in late capitalism is explored by RA Walden. In the work Crip Ecologies, the fragility of the body is tied to the fragility of our ecosystems. The installation archives the artist鈥檚 limited contact with nature, which is the result of their disability. Natural objects are preserved in alcohol in containers that resemble apothecary bottles. They seem mundane, even self-evident but are elevated as precious artefacts in the work. The booklet and video Notes From The Underlands form a performative text about the queer utopia of the disabled and the sick. By calling to action and reflecting on the relationship of people who are not-yet-disabled in relation to the community of the disabled and sick, they challenge the assumption that the body must be physically present (and non-disabled) in order to perform. Both works explore manifestations of care that go beyond binary understandings of non-disability and disability, sickness and health.
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The exhibition Sick features works by artists who identify as disabled and/or chronically ill and thus wishes to bring the experience of illness and disability, often associated with the private, into the public sphere. In their practice and artworks, the artists explore the lived experience of illness/disability as that nexus of class, race and gender that is usually overlooked in discussions of intersectionality and political activism.
It is unpleasant to think that we will all become sick or disabled at some point. Non-disabled individuals and society collectively brush aside the thought of the inevitable, and at the same time also all those who are already facing it. The fear is not surprising, since capitalism equates the value of people with their productivity and the possibility of (ab)using their bodies for the purpose of capital. Meanwhile, it is pushing the disabled and the sick into poverty, and with the decline of social security, vulnerable groups are becoming even more invisible to the rest of society. Disability is a concept of the lived experience in an ableist society and the individual鈥檚 embodiment, not medical diagnosis and legal definition.
Embodiment in late capitalism is explored by RA Walden. In the work Crip Ecologies, the fragility of the body is tied to the fragility of our ecosystems. The installation archives the artist鈥檚 limited contact with nature, which is the result of their disability. Natural objects are preserved in alcohol in containers that resemble apothecary bottles. They seem mundane, even self-evident but are elevated as precious artefacts in the work. The booklet and video Notes From The Underlands form a performative text about the queer utopia of the disabled and the sick. By calling to action and reflecting on the relationship of people who are not-yet-disabled in relation to the community of the disabled and sick, they challenge the assumption that the body must be physically present (and non-disabled) in order to perform. Both works explore manifestations of care that go beyond binary understandings of non-disability and disability, sickness and health.
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