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Artist’s Statement

 

How much of my work as an artist over the last twenty five years has been consciously or unconsciously informed by my experience of disability?  This is the question I constantly ask myself. How much does my perception of myself differ from how others see me?  What comes first in my life, art or disability?  These are all uncomfortable questions and perhaps the answers I am presented with are not what I hoped to hear.

 

Disability Arts is defined as any arts activity concerned with how disabled people see the world and how the world sees disabled people.  It’s impossible for me to segregate the three strands which form my identity;  I am disabled, I am a woman and I am an artist.  I cannot separate my art from my point of view.

 

Disability Art is not therapy (although there is a cathartic process involved in all artistic expression).

Disability Art is not just a pleasant way for cripples to pass the time because they have nothing better to do (like the bad old days of basket weaving in stale-scented, decomposing day centres).

Disability Art is about communication (like all serious art).

 

“The times they are a’changing“ proclaimed Bob Dylan. Attitudes are changing and disability issues are now on the political agenda. The Disability Discrimination Act, although not a perfect piece of legislation, is worthy of celebration.  It’s twenty years since the shocking moment when a militant bunch of wheelchair users stopped the buses running in central London.  The Disability Arts Movement has since spread around the world giving disabled people a voice for the first time in history.  We no longer have to be judged, labeled and condemned by the low expectations and prejudices of the non-disabled.  We do not have to apologise for who we are.  We may be different but we are equally valid, equally human and equally strong. 

 

 

Lydia Popowich, 2011.

 

 

For Enquiries Please Contact Lydia by Telephone:-  01593 721335;  07777601938 or e-mail skidlyd@btinternet.com