Book Essay

Beautiful Progress to Somewhere? in The Incorrigibles: Perspectives on Disability Visual Arts in the 20th and 21st Centuries

2016

Image from Beautiful Progress to Somewhere? in The Incorrigibles: Perspectives on Disability Visual Arts in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Bibliographic Reference

“Beautiful Progress to Somewhere?” in The Incorrigibles: Perspectives on Disability Visual Arts in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Compiled and edited by DASH Arts, Shrewsbury, and published by mac Birmingham, UK, 2016.

In 2011, the deaf artist and scholar Joseph Grigely wrote an excellent and influential essay, entitled ‘Beautiful Progress to Nowhere,’ which contributed towards an extensive collection of commissioned texts compiled and edited by Aaron Williamson for the journal, Parallel Lines. The online journal was facilitated and hosted by the Serpentine Gallery in London and funded by Arts Council England. In the text, Grigely talked of how ‘there are no easy answers about disability, and no easy answers for Disabled artists. We make progress where we can, even beautiful progress to nowhere, straight into a wall.’ Grigely was making reference to a work by artist Stephen Lapthisophon, which formed part of his solo show at Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois in 2002, entitled ‘Within Reasonable Accommodation.’

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