art smarts

Chapter 4. Art, Identity and the Disability Movement

The best thing I love about performing in comedy clubs is that people have no idea what they’re getting into until I walk up on stage. And they’re caught there. I suppose they could get up and leave if they wanted to, but that would mean forfeiting the 10 or 15 bucks they had to shell out.

I work from my own experience as a person with a disability. I focus on the challenges, the attitudes I come across, and I use comedy to share with people what some of the issues are, how it affects my life. I also use theatre to show people that I live in the same world. I see the artist’s role in the disability movement as making that connection with the general public – that we’re human, too. What artists can do is show who they are on stage rather than necessarily talking about disability rights. I never mention disability rights in my comedy act; I’m just talking about who I am and what I go through. But in a very subtle way, people get the message that I go through things I shouldn’t have to go through. That’s a very powerful role that artists play: we get at people who are just coming out to be entertained. I think that’s the best way to address some of these issues, instead of hitting people over the head with them. The disability arts movement is really trying to open up the business, to see disability as just another point from which you’re expressing yourself. But still being real artists or real actors.
alan

I find the Americans have difficulty with my disability more than Canadians do. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve had greater exposure across Canada than in the United States or what. But I’ve certainly found that when I step out onto the stage in the US, perhaps fifty percent of the audience is kind of reserved and hesitant to roll with it. I think maybe some folks suspect that I have some sight. I tend to act very much as a sighted individual, and I’ve always said, “Well, I was a sighted person for twenty-two years, I know how the sighted world acts, I know how they behave.” I also studied theatre at university, and I am aware of performance and presentation skills and things like that. So it’s almost, when I walk out there, I’m out there to beat the sighted audience at their own game. I’m gonna try and fake them out. They don’t see my white cane and they don’t see me as a blind. They go, “This guy acts like a sighted person.” So maybe that disturbs them as much as anything. But very often they are hesitant to roll with it. I used to be kind of unnerved by that. But now I go, “Well, if you don’t get it, you don’t get it. If you get it, good.” I think some of them are like, “Oh my goodness, I’m not sure if this is appropriate or proper!”
gord

First and foremost, what I want to accomplish is creating an awareness that people with disabilities are not as dumb as people think they are. We are not to be put in boxes. We are to be brought out, and our talents are supposed to be shown. So that we can be included in the community rather than excluded.
rasika

My art is political. But I’m not sure that it’s political about being disabled; it’s probably more political about being female. And being disabled is sometimes a part of being female. So I don’t perceive myself as part of a movement, no. Someone like me who has an invisible disability – it doesn’t necessarily come up. But being female does.
bernadine

I believe now it’s important to just get the image of disability out there to the mainstream. And it’s important that people with disabilities have a model to relate to. It doesn’t have to be the same sex or age, it’s just gotta be out there. When I was injured, the only reference I had was Rick Hansen, who’s a super athlete, and it really wasn’t me. So we need to get more images out there and to encourage other people to do it – make it so it’s not just token roles and stuff like that. That would be great.

I realize that in TV land and movie land now, if I just try and get in as an actor, it’s not gonna happen. I’m gonna be an old man, everything’s just gonna go by. So now it’s up to me to create that work.
james

I think I’m a pioneer here. I just want to try to establish some structure in integrated dance in Montreal because it’s my mission. I want to open up the mentality here, I want to open the door of the rehearsal studio. And what inspires me? Well, for example, after seven weeks I can see the difference in my students. In the beginning of the workshop they’re shy, they don’t know how to move and they have no expression on their face or anything. And after seven weeks I can see many differences. This is my inspiration. And I don’t know, sometime it’s so hard, but when I come back into the dance studio it’s like my home. I feel great. And that’s the reason I want to carry on. It’s like my job. I can’t do other things. I’m an artist. That’s it.

For me, this is not a reason: “I can’t dance because I’m disabled.” Why? Why can’t I dance? You can dance with your arms, you can dance with your eyes, you can dance with your head – you know? Everything moves – not everything, but all of your movement is good for dance.
france

Art can help us to communicate with each other, to create community.

Among people with disabilities, there’s so often this real glee about the way we get through things. Those things feel so precious and lovely and juicy and they’re this kind of thing that we share. It’s such a grim experience, but between people with disabilities there’s a strength and pride in our ability to navigate the shit. And there’s such a humour about the things that we know and we share. I do see myself as part of the disability movement and I find that really, really fulfilling.
persimmon

There’s a lot of doors, and you can open doors without sacrificing a drive to make art that satisfies you in its complexity and its difficulty and its layeredness. People can get it – they just have to not be faced with a slammed door that says “This isn’t for you.”

If people are interested in what you’re doing they’ll put some work in. They just have to know that they are part of it. A lot of artwork that I really, really love says things that people in the art community can recognize and put in context and are interested in. But for someone who’s not part of the art community, instead of looking at it as this interesting, challenging thing, they’ll often get the message that this isn’t for you, and instead of engaging in it they’ll just go, “Oh well, it’s not for me.” And because I grew up not thinking I was an artist and not thinking that I understood art, that matters to me.
persimmon

There are a lot of people who have handicaps of one kind or another, and not all of them are as obvious as mine, sitting in a wheelchair. But they have mobility challenges, people have developmental challenges, and on and on. So one of the reasons for writing my book now is hopefully that people will see it, will read it, people who do have handicaps, people who care for people with disabilities, and say, “Well, my gosh, you know, if Ed Smith can do that, then I can do it. If he can cope with that kind of catastrophe in his life, I can cope with it” – and so on. And hopefully – I wish I could think of another word besides inspiration – but hopefully it would be a bit inspiring to people who need inspiration in their lives. People who are in this situation, including me, have periods when we can use all the inspiration we can get.
ed

I am part of the disability movement, and my art has a part in the movement. Everything a person does has a part to play. I’m part of my dance teacher’s community – her academy – and it’s inclusive. I’m the only person there with a disability, but still, the people do talk to me there. We’re all there to enjoy the same art. And my dance teacher makes a point to include me. I perform in my community, in the Marathi-speaking community. I am very much included there because these are our friends. And they like including their friends. To them, I’m just a friend.
rasika

Sometimes we find refuge among other artists.

Creative people are sort of a breed unto their own. I like tolerance, and there’s a lot of tolerance in the arts community for other people – how other people think and how other people perceive things, how they want to express that, and I enjoy that kind of liberal thinking.
bernadine

I think that having an invisible disability operates in a particular way. And it’s kind of similar to being queer. People on the street don’t pick me out as disabled or as queer. And within the queer community people assume that I’m not a person with a disability – except at this point I’ve done so much art in public a lot of people know. I can be assumed as “normal.”

I think that I’m kind of a weirdo, but in the art world it’s not entirely unacceptable to be a weirdo. I feel like I’m a marginal person in the art world, but the art world will sort of accept and take up people on the margins.

I think that we all have overlapping identities and allegiances, and it’s not like they’re at all separate. Sometimes we have to act like they’re separate in the world, because that’s the way the world processes you, but they’re not really separate inside of you.
persimmon

Art can be a path to self-acceptance and pride

Only art has made me feel comfortable in groups. When I was a financial analyst, I had to meet people a couple of times before I could gain their respect. But as an artist, people respond to me differently. I feel more comfortable. I don’t mind my back being seen.

I can tell you that I use my wheelchair to go to the museum, to go to art shows, to go to the kickstART! Celebration, but I’m still not ready to use it to go get groceries. For art I’m ready to keep going and accept my situation. My art does not reflect my disability in any way, but more and more I feel part of the disability community. I have to use a wheelchair more and more, so disability is more of a reality for me. Maybe I’ve become wise, or maybe it’s just reality. Maybe art helps me to accept my disability.

I don’t paint to present cute things for marketing, but I wish to present nice things, beauty. I don’t want to denounce injustice. We need to struggle for our rights, but we don’t need to go around with placards. It’s better to try to be respected and heard by presenting something beautiful. We need to be diplomatic. When people see my paintings, maybe they understand that people with disabilities have a role in society. If I can bring pleasure, that is my role now.The role of an artist is to show beauty and bring people pleasure, to influence children to enjoy art.
roger

I do feel that I’m part of the disability movement. I’m involved with the BC Aboriginal Network on Disability. I can network there, sell some of my art. They have a newsletter and a library. I’m in one of their videos called A Gift to Offer. I have a lot of friends with disabilities. There are a lot of people with disabilities on the reserve where I live.
koskas

We at S4DAC are excited about encouraging people with disabilities to explore their creativity and to share it with others. What inspires us is not only the powerful, new ideas and imagery that can arise out of the experience of disability, but the opportunities to educate and enlighten each other and the community at large.

Chapter 5 Training and Development