Disability, normality and absurdity: A reflection on stuckist disability art

Abstract

In this article, I take issue with the idea that impairment and disability (which are not the same) can only be experienced negatively and as ‘useless difference’ (Michalko, 2002). Reflecting on two of my paintings, currently on display at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, particularly in terms of their absurdity, I suggest that the perspective and insight expressed in these is directly related to my experience as a disabled person. As Stuckist works, these paintings are intentionally scurrilous, provocative and ridiculous. They cock a snook at people’s preoccupations with self-presentation as normal and at the alienation normalcy involves. I doubt I would have come to look at these things in this way had I not been a disabled person. I suggest that in adding to our stock of representation and understanding of human experience, this insight–part of a disabled imagination - is far from useless.