Cripping, Living, Loving

From dancing in the aisles of a pharmacy to engaging in protests from bed, these films present a view of Disabled, Deaf, chronically ill, Neurodivergent, and/or Mad life that is rarely seen, yet vital. Showing that our experiences are vast, layered, and beautiful.

Potently portrayed in this program are many contradictions I find often present in my own Crip life. Hope and Despair. Tenderness and Resistance. Isolation and Connection.

These artists show us the beauty of embracing these contradictions. That their coexistence is actually a necessity, not just for us as Disabled people but for anyone motivated to enact real change.

How can we experience real, authentic hope without noticing and honoring the despair which exists within and around us?

How can we fight for collective liberation without community care and tender interdependence?

Together with footage of slow-moving insects and medical settings, in Flare, we see Kit Blamire joyfully exchanging video messages while in bed with friends at a march, dancing and showing one another protest banners they’ve made:

“SMASH THE STATE, MASTURBATE”

“NON-BINARY DYKES – UP FOR FIGHTS”

“NON BINARY DYKE AGAINST THE MEDICAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!!”

“Sick is SEXY”

“Sick of doctors! Sick of the binary!”

Flare carries you into moments of Crip Joy and Crip Rage, often happening concurrently.

In Sara Wylie’s Resistance Meditation, a voiceover introduces the concept of Crip Time as a form of resistance, accompanied by eco-processed super 8 footage of a chronically ill person in bed. Sara Wylie provides an immersive experience, making prominent the tactile nature of the film object while encouraging us to engage with our own bodies by breathing in unison.

In Spoons (After Carolyn Lazard), Jamila Prowse visualizes Spoon Theory, and the reality of living with limited spoons through the artistic process of papier-mâché on wooden spoons with newspaper clippings about COVID-19. Throughout, she communicates with fellow Disabled artists in an exchange of voice notes. She invites us into these intimate moments of Crip community connection, with these friends relating to and validating one another’s experiences of low or inconsistent energy levels. Prowse shows us something I personally find so special about Crip friendship, a coexistence of vulnerability and humor, made possible by mutual understanding and trust.

Chanika Svetvilas transforms the sterile representations of medical treatment, specifically for bipolar disorder. Pharma Infinity Dance disrupts our notions of how we are meant to act in the setting of the pharmacy by dancing with a sculpture made up of used pill bottles, the repurposing of these pharmaceutical objects serving as a further disruption to business-as-usual. The work places us in the conflict of an inability to opt out of the harmful medical-industrial complex, due to a need for medication.

Between sounds of fire crackling and birds chirping, Erica Monde explores the similarities between the invasive Japanese Knotweed plant and Endometriosis in There’s Not Much We Can Do. They speak on the lack of care offered by the medical system for any pelvic pain, deeming it as “natural”. With this, they invite us to sit in the discomfort of the contradiction present in finding meaning in tenderly exploring the connections between our bodies and the natural world as well as the harm that comes with medical professionals using this same nature-oriented language as a dismissal.

Let this program be an invitation to join us in a reimagining of what our world is and what it can become.

If you are Disabled yourself, this program is a warm embrace, and a message: you matter, there are fellow Disabled folks all over the world who care about you, and you are deserving of love exactly as you are. Just by existing, you are changing the world.