A Declaration of Art Intent


This is a longer version of the text read aloud on my homepage. Listen to it in full or read the text below.


The Problem:
There are many persistent and entrenched ideas, tropes and practices that unnecessarily negatively impact on the cultural lives of millions of visually impaired people in contemporary society. The effect of this widespread discrimination is to limit and impoverish the lives of many blind and disabled people. These are lives and opportunities that could otherwise be culturally generative both as consumers and/or producers. With this manifesto, I undertake to vigorously work towards eradicating these problems. 

Thanks to the uptake of the Social Model of Disability in recent years, it is more widely appreciated that many of the barriers that constitute this problem are contingently constructed - they don’t have to be there! 

The persistent barriers that are the target of this manifesto include:

  • Discriminatory access to the visual content of arts and literature for those millions who lay outside the majority ‘normal’, able-bodied groupings
  • Limited access to the visual content of ubiquitous digital, smart internet environments
  • Limited access to audio description of TV broadcasts and film showings
  • The persistence of a policy of prohibition of touching art in art shows
  • Limited availability of live audio description in art shows for blind and disabled people

The Solution:
Through my art practice, I demonstrate the plethora of ways in which blindness and disability experience continues to be misunderstood and misrepresented by large swathes of both the able-bodied and the disabled population. I use a range of public platforms to promote my artworks and work hard to challenge and undermine these problems.

My art practice employs humour and irony as well as an integrated approach to disability access to drive home the message. My artworks often refer to familiar, everyday encounters and objects and by so doing maximise their public appeal and approachability. My art practice sheds new light on these complex problems and helps to create a more enlightened and culturally inclusive society. This manifesto builds on the well-established but still relevant disability motto, ‘nothing about us without us.’