Beholding Relations
An Exploration of Disability, Oppression and Liberation
September 1 - September 30, 2023
Unit London
3 Hanover Square, Mayfair, W1S 1HD, UK
Alec Finlay, Aminder Virdee, Gabriele Gervickaite, Katherine Sherwood, Leah Clements, Milda Januseviciute, Nat Decker, RA Walden, Resting Museum, Robert Andy Coombs, Sophie Hoyle, Stephen Dwoskin, Zoe Partington
Curated by Yates Norton & David Ruebain
Katherine Sherwood, Ham and Pewter (after M.V.O.), mixed media on found material, 2022.
I am honored to be included in a very thoughtfully curated online exhibition at Unit London. I am excited to be in the company of such an interesting group of artists, many of whom are new discoveries for me. And I am grateful to the curators for creating such a beautiful presentation of the work and for framing the exhibition with a text that offers such a profound and intentional framing of the liberatory potential of disability and art:
“This exhibition is, in some ways, a manifesto. Not in the sense of a loud, avant-garde, solution-focused statement, but in the sense of making apparent a series of propositions about how we might not just be together but also thrive together. At the heart of thinking through this is disability, alongside other identities and lived experiences…
“This exhibition’s focus is on disability and ableism. In that regard, we take as our foundation the Social Model of disability, which is the basis of disability liberation movements around the world. In summary, this contends that, beyond our impairments (our medical and quasi-medical conditions), we are disabled by our environments and relationships that exclude or marginalise. However, when constructed in ways which give effect to our inherent desire and need for connection, just such environments and relationships can also be the source of our liberation…”
- from Beholding Relations exhibition text by Yates Norton & David Ruebain
I am also delighted that writer, speaker, activist, teacher and poet Eli Clare has prepared image descriptions that not only function as depictions of the work for the blind and visually impaired, but take the form of experimental prose that offers a highly personal and contemplative interpretation of the work:
“Bright flowers – red, pink, yellow, purple, white. Overflowing leaves. Green stems underwater, fMRIs of Sherwood’s brain that look like flowers, or maybe flowers masquerading as fMRIs. Fruit growing roots across a table. Grey metal tools that might be kitchen implements, or possibly medical instruments. A vase painted subdued blue and white, a contained scene of its own – a human inside a plant world. Peas in a pod, purple ball-like blossoms, yellow petals wilted – all fallen from vase to table.”
- from Eli Clare’s image descriptions for Beholding Relations
I encourage you to set aside a few minutes to explore this extensive exhibition: