SENSORIA: Access & Agency

Issue 42:2 | Wirltuti / Spring 2022

Editor: Una Rey

This issue platforms a range of contemporary art practices and debates written by and with artists who identify as part of the disabled, d/Deaf, vision impaired or neurodiverse communities. The commissioned essays, profiles and conversations offer diverse perspectives of lived experience and (in)visibility in the art worlds of Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and the UK. Writers reflect on the power and politics of language, artist’s methods of working before and during the (2019–) pandemic, and the practical and social dimensions of access now and into the future. Read as a collection of art and ideas, SENSORIA: Access & Agency promotes nuanced ways of thinking about the binaries of ‘disability’ and ‘ableism’ in recent art history and current art discourse. It also explores experimental art making, writing and curating models to expand creative agency and generate authentic inclusion of physical and neurological diversity in the art world.

Cover image: Ruark Lewis, SPEEDY PAINTING, NEW YEAR.05022022, 2022, synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Photo: Sowerby Smith.
Unley Museum NAVA Riddoch