>> the paul k. longmoreinstitute on disability launch event. 10-11-2012, san franciscostate university. amanda cachia, phdstudent, uc-san diego. >> amanda cachia: i'd like toextend my thanks, first of all
Kerkar Art Complex, to emily beitiks andespecially catherine kudlick for inviting me here. it's such an honor, and i'dlike to congratulate you both on your roles and to theuniversity for this occasion.
it's such a historical moment and it's an honorto be here with it. so, as cathy mentioned,i'm a freelance curator, and i've just begun my ambitiousplan to complete my dual phd in communications and in arthistory, theory and criticism at the university ofcalifornia, in san diego. so in doing my phd, i'llbe focusing very broadly on the relationshipbetween representation and social identity incontemporary art practice,
particularly how this relatesto disability and issues of normativity and embodiment. now i came to work in thisarea as i've always wanted to meld together the issuesand challenges stemming from my personaland social life, as a woman with a rare form ofdwarfism named "brachyolmia", with my creative andprofessional life, as a curator. but most importantly,i was affected by several criticalevents in my childhood,
one of which included a white,male doctor's gaze on my body when i was 10 or 11 yearsold, a gaze that emanated from medical privilege andauthority that was to determine if my body was "normal"or "abnormal." and so that consequentlyled to my interest in changing perceptions andopening up conversations about what one can do, movingin on through occupations of language and definitionsaround the word "disability." so back in that doctor'soffice, all those years ago,
i was made to feelthat my body was wrong, and that i was limited. and so now i'm able toidentify as disabled, and it took me a longtime to get to that point, because i never thoughti was disabled. sometimes it's difficult toreach items on a top shelf in a grocery store or to see abank teller over a high counter, but i saw these challengesas something to overcome. but i've come to see that iam disabled, because i believe
that i share commoncharacteristics with others who are disabled. whether they are deaf, blind,paralyzed from the waist down, or need a wheelchairfor mobility. so for me, the label"disabled" means identifying with feeling socially andculturally marginalized because my body isatypical from others. so in the past two years, i've been developing myresearch based on the work
of laura swansonand corban walker, during my master's thesis at thecalifornia college of the arts, here in san francisco. but these artists challengedominant culture's perceptions of scale, size and proportion as they inscribe theirsite specific sculptures with their experienceof dwarfism. so in doing so, ibelieve that they adjust and destabilize an oftenreductive representation
of the disabled body as theymove towards more complex embodied forms. the artists also move awayfrom problematic figures such as the midget or the freak,as portrayed in historical and contemporary westernvisual discourses, particularly in popular culture, theentertainment industry and canonical art history. in the past year, i've beenworking very hard towards turning my master's thesisresearch into an exhibition,
so i'm pleased to say thaton friday, october 26, my exhibition, "whatcan a body do?" will open at cantor fitzgeraldgallery at haverford college in pennsylvania, thatfeatures the work of nine contemporary artists whoinvent and reframe disability across a range of media. the work presented inthis exhibition ranges from figurative and abstractobjects to performance pieces and recordings ofexperiential art,
that engage with individualexperiences of embodiment, but also asks howbodies perform beauty, how they make our bodies feel, how they interactwith other bodies. in other words, whatbodies can do. it conceives of people withdisabilities not as objects of study or a stigmatizing gaze, but as subjects whose uniqueperspective engender valuable, particularized knowledge.
several works foregroundperception and accessibility through their engagementwith multi-sensory experience and sensory translation,so to many, providing access simply meansmodifying a suitable space, but to those whoare more informed, access also means makinginformation available and in alternate modes,hiring asl interpreters, using technology creatively,providing text in large print and alternative formatand so on.
but once we begin to imaginewhat full access might look like, the possibilitiesare actually endless. the concept is elusiveand protean. access involves more thanjust checking off a list of practical accommodations. it's really a way ofthinking about the world, that challenges us toimagine how another body, another self-experiences it. so it's my goal tocontinue to push the area
into my curatorial practice. so in my dissertation, i'm going to concentrate ontwo major areas. i hope to conducta reading of work by contemporary disabledartists and also a re-reading of contemporary art byestablished disabled and non-disabled artists, through a disabilitystudies lens and how these two areasmay fruitfully intersect.
i believe that it's essentialto have both of these components because i'm attempting to strategicallyinvigorate art history and contemporary artdiscourse both with an insider and outsider perspective. in other words, i'd liketo speak as one operating within the cannon and yetsimultaneously inject the cannon with a new framework of "other,"working across the center and in the margin and try andbreak down these binaries.
so in my reading of work bycontemporary, disabled artists, i'll be thinking and writingabout how a viewer's perceptions of the disabled bodycan be shifted by encountering aplethora of atypical, physical experiencesinscribed in a work of art. so i believe that i am poisedto invigorate visual culture in new ways as i bring tothe forefront an awareness that disability in a bidto foster new critical and socially justrepresentation.
thank you so much. [ applause ]
>> the paul k. longmoreinstitute on disability launch event. 10-11-2012, san franciscostate university. amanda cachia, phdstudent, uc-san diego. >> amanda cachia: i'd like toextend my thanks, first of all
Kerkar Art Complex, to emily beitiks andespecially catherine kudlick for inviting me here. it's such an honor, and i'dlike to congratulate you both on your roles and to theuniversity for this occasion.
it's such a historical moment and it's an honorto be here with it. so, as cathy mentioned,i'm a freelance curator, and i've just begun my ambitiousplan to complete my dual phd in communications and in arthistory, theory and criticism at the university ofcalifornia, in san diego. so in doing my phd, i'llbe focusing very broadly on the relationshipbetween representation and social identity incontemporary art practice,
particularly how this relatesto disability and issues of normativity and embodiment. now i came to work in thisarea as i've always wanted to meld together the issuesand challenges stemming from my personaland social life, as a woman with a rare form ofdwarfism named "brachyolmia", with my creative andprofessional life, as a curator. but most importantly,i was affected by several criticalevents in my childhood,
one of which included a white,male doctor's gaze on my body when i was 10 or 11 yearsold, a gaze that emanated from medical privilege andauthority that was to determine if my body was "normal"or "abnormal." and so that consequentlyled to my interest in changing perceptions andopening up conversations about what one can do, movingin on through occupations of language and definitionsaround the word "disability." so back in that doctor'soffice, all those years ago,
i was made to feelthat my body was wrong, and that i was limited. and so now i'm able toidentify as disabled, and it took me a longtime to get to that point, because i never thoughti was disabled. sometimes it's difficult toreach items on a top shelf in a grocery store or to see abank teller over a high counter, but i saw these challengesas something to overcome. but i've come to see that iam disabled, because i believe
that i share commoncharacteristics with others who are disabled. whether they are deaf, blind,paralyzed from the waist down, or need a wheelchairfor mobility. so for me, the label"disabled" means identifying with feeling socially andculturally marginalized because my body isatypical from others. so in the past two years, i've been developing myresearch based on the work
of laura swansonand corban walker, during my master's thesis at thecalifornia college of the arts, here in san francisco. but these artists challengedominant culture's perceptions of scale, size and proportion as they inscribe theirsite specific sculptures with their experienceof dwarfism. so in doing so, ibelieve that they adjust and destabilize an oftenreductive representation
of the disabled body as theymove towards more complex embodied forms. the artists also move awayfrom problematic figures such as the midget or the freak,as portrayed in historical and contemporary westernvisual discourses, particularly in popular culture, theentertainment industry and canonical art history. in the past year, i've beenworking very hard towards turning my master's thesisresearch into an exhibition,
so i'm pleased to say thaton friday, october 26, my exhibition, "whatcan a body do?" will open at cantor fitzgeraldgallery at haverford college in pennsylvania, thatfeatures the work of nine contemporary artists whoinvent and reframe disability across a range of media. the work presented inthis exhibition ranges from figurative and abstractobjects to performance pieces and recordings ofexperiential art,
that engage with individualexperiences of embodiment, but also asks howbodies perform beauty, how they make our bodies feel, how they interactwith other bodies. in other words, whatbodies can do. it conceives of people withdisabilities not as objects of study or a stigmatizing gaze, but as subjects whose uniqueperspective engender valuable, particularized knowledge.
several works foregroundperception and accessibility through their engagementwith multi-sensory experience and sensory translation,so to many, providing access simply meansmodifying a suitable space, but to those whoare more informed, access also means makinginformation available and in alternate modes,hiring asl interpreters, using technology creatively,providing text in large print and alternative formatand so on.
but once we begin to imaginewhat full access might look like, the possibilitiesare actually endless. the concept is elusiveand protean. access involves more thanjust checking off a list of practical accommodations. it's really a way ofthinking about the world, that challenges us toimagine how another body, another self-experiences it. so it's my goal tocontinue to push the area
into my curatorial practice. so in my dissertation, i'm going to concentrate ontwo major areas. i hope to conducta reading of work by contemporary disabledartists and also a re-reading of contemporary art byestablished disabled and non-disabled artists, through a disabilitystudies lens and how these two areasmay fruitfully intersect.
i believe that it's essentialto have both of these components because i'm attempting to strategicallyinvigorate art history and contemporary artdiscourse both with an insider and outsider perspective. in other words, i'd liketo speak as one operating within the cannon and yetsimultaneously inject the cannon with a new framework of "other,"working across the center and in the margin and try andbreak down these binaries.
so in my reading of work bycontemporary, disabled artists, i'll be thinking and writingabout how a viewer's perceptions of the disabled bodycan be shifted by encountering aplethora of atypical, physical experiencesinscribed in a work of art. so i believe that i am poisedto invigorate visual culture in new ways as i bring tothe forefront an awareness that disability in a bidto foster new critical and socially justrepresentation.
thank you so much. [ applause ]