The Disabling

The Disabling focuses on a series of physical resin exoskeletons that severely limit the movement of my jaw and tongue. My tongue and jaw are the site of my disability therefore the mouthpieces add another layer of disability. My speech becomes more slurred, I drool more frequently. These exoskeletons become a symbol of enhancing and flaunting disability. Through this flaunting of my disability, I can control how I interact with the world, an affordance that is rarely granted to disabled people. Through systematic practices and individual beliefs against disability, disabled people are seen as non-human. With The Disabling, I offer disabled people a choice in how they want to present themselves and challenge the notions working against them. I found power, joy, filth, and community through my disability, why shouldn’t I flaunt them?

The self-portraits explore the intersection of disability and sexuality, two qualities that are rarely shown together. That is disabled people are often showcased in two ways: feeble sexless objects, or hyper-sexual deviants where sex is distorted into a threat, and these forms strip the sexual expression of disabled people. These forms further the ableist notion that disabled people are non-human and are not worthy of sexual freedom. The self-portraits portray the mouthpieces in a sensual way, the next hottest kink item. Disability becomes tangled with sexuality, and people are unable to separate the two entities.

The presentation of The Disabling is based on natural history/science museums, which are sites of biological differences, and mirror the history of presenting disabled people in freakshows. People are allowed to gawk and laugh at how different those people are within the format's safety. The Disabling follows a similar format, but the confrontal subject matter forces people to look at how they see disability. The boundary between the gawker and participant dissolves and the viewer becomes aware of their actions.

The Interview is inspired by the trashy talk show interviews and the inherent power dynamic between the hosts and guests. The video, based on awkward situations where I have been made out to be “too disabled” to talk to, satirely approaches the themes of technoableism, power dynamics, and social interactions between disabled and non-disabled people. I had people approach me and try to strike up conversations with me but once I opened up my mouth and spoke, their whole mannerisms changed. I had people say “Oh” and leave the physical space, I had people attempt signing at me, and awkwardly try to pivot away. These situations always left me in the awkward space of maneuvering from human to non-human. The Interview is a reenactment of those situations but I am not pushed into the position of making myself smaller, the host, representing those people, is made out to be the fool