This BBC Radio 4 Extra programme, The Way Out: The Disabled Avant-Garde is available to listen to now and asks the question: Can art give the disability rights movement its own revolution?
Disability has never had its revolutionary moment: no Suffrage, Stonewall or Watts Riots. Rather it’s been perceived as the poor relation of civil rights, last on the agitation pecking order.
Performance artist Aaron Williamson (who is profoundly deaf) presents a feature exploring whether performing arts practice can do what political agitation never has – radicalize, even revolutionise, mainstream public perceptions of disability.
These artists set out to challenge popular perceptions of disabled people as well as explore disabled artists’ own physical differences from the norm.
This feature looks at their work in contrast to mainstream public thinking on disability (eg.the Equality and Human Rights Commission) and ask whether the radical possibilities opened up by disability politics have been co-opted by endless subsidy and ‘minority’ box ticking. It will also explore whether this is the one remaining area of identity politics where art still has the edge. Featuring interview, audio and sound art from the ‘Disabled Avant-Garde’.
