UNFPA, Women Enabled International and Photoville present seven artists who uniquely counter society’s assumptions about persons with disabilities — delving into the nuances of their lived experiences as part of the disability community. In a world that can often overlook and ignore the voices of persons with disabilities, this exhibition instead puts their voices at the forefront. Through multiple formats and mediums, this presentation of work allows viewers to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to live with a disability. 

Aurora Berger reflects on how she views the world through what she calls an “expansive self-portrait” — to explore normalcy, agency, disability, visual acuity, and interpretation. Megan Bent mirrors her diagnosis of a progressive chronic illness through image-making processes. Frances Bukovsky combines fine art and documentary photography to examine chronic illness, disability, and queerness in relation to selfhood, relationships, and medical experiences. Jaklin Romine’s video installation from her series ACCESS DENIED displays inaccessible art spaces in Los Angeles. Panteha Abareshi pushes back on the erasure of identities by exploring the complexities of living within a body that is highly monitored. RA Walden’s Crip Ecologies, 2022 (2) identifies their limited time with the natural world, mirroring the fragility of the ecosystem with that of the body. Sugandha Gupta engages through the senses — using a variety of textures, scents, and sounds to immerse her audience. We invite you to explore the power within each of their voices, and the ways in which they’ve channeled their experience with disabilities into captivating pieces of art.

LAUREN ANDERS BROWN 

BIO

Lauren Anders Brown is a documentary director and photographer who has captured content in over 40 countries. She traveled to Morocco and Ecuador and met with nine people who allowed her to document their lives in visual and auditory formats. Many of these people are activists, but they are also athletes, employees, academics, entrepreneurs, and everyday people. As someone who knows what it is like to live with a disability, Anders Brown approached this exhibit by giving all of the contributors full autonomy to choose how they were photographed. She welcomes you to participate in their journeys in whatever medium works best for you: visual, auditory, and/or immersive.

ARTIST STATEMENT

This is a multi-sensory exhibit of photographs, audio recordings, and immersive films bringing us around the world to Ecuador, Morocco and Mozambique into the lives of persons with disabilities, who are agents of change. The artwork aims to build momentum and awareness around the sexual and reproductive health and rights and bodily autonomy of women and young persons with disabilities, highlight the voices and experiences of persons with disabilities, and promote their meaningful participation and access to sexual and reproductive health, and gender based violence related services. 

MBUTO CARLOS MACHILI

BIO

Born and raised in Maputo, Mbuto Carlos Machili is a father and husband who has been photographing for over 10 years. He spent five years in South Africa for English studies and university. His focus has been storytelling around children, women, and people pushing humanity forward. He has received praise and numerous awards for his work. Recently, Machili photographed persons with disabilities in Mozambique. He supports them through his art — to convey personal messages that promote their sexual and reproductive health and rights. He is profoundly honored and inspired by this work. 

MEGAN BENT

BIO

Megan Bent is a lens-based artist interested in the malleability of photography and the ways image-making can happen beyond using a traditional camera. She is interested in processes that reflect her disabled experience — especially interdependence, impermanence, care, and slowness.

Her artwork has been exhibited throughout the U.S. at venues nationally and internationally. She has been an artist in residence at Art Beyond Sight’s 2021/2022 Art + Disability Residency, the Nobles School in Dedham, MA, and the Honolulu Museum of Art, HI. Her work has been featured in Lenscratch, Analog Forever Magazine, Fraction Magazine, Rfotofolio, Too Tired Project, and Float Photography Magazine.

ARTIST STATEMENT

In March 2020, my fear of catching the coronavirus became palpable. I am chronically ill and immunocompromised. This work is my reflection on being high-risk, and the world’s demand that disabled people be acceptable losses for convenience or corporate profit. 

I claim disability as a valuable part of human diversity. Chlorophyll prints are created through a cooperative relationship with the organic materials and environment. It is a process that celebrates care, interdependence, slowness, and adaptability — values of belonging I find in the disability community. These prints will continue to decay over time, underscoring the interdependence and bodily impermanence we all share.

AURORA BERGER

BIO

Aurora Berger is a queer artist with disability working with photographic and alternative processes. Berger uses language and imagery to challenge ableist and heteronormative ideas, investigating concepts of normalcy, disability, agency, visual acuity, and interpretation. Berger holds an MFA from Claremont Graduate University, as well as a BFA and BA in art education from Prescott College. She is the recipient of the Kennedy Center VSA and Wynn Newhouse awards, and has participated in residencies with the Art and Disability program. Berger has presented her work at several conferences, and her writing has been published by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, Drkrm Editions, and Brill | Sense. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

As a physically and visually disabled artist, my work is a reflection of how I see the world — using language and imagery to challenge ableist ideas and explore parts of myself I am just beginning to come to terms with. 

Although my works are largely photographic, the medium I often use to realize them is cyanotype. These cyanotypes are an extension of my self portraiture — testing the materiality and temporality of the images, allowing me to embrace chance and change in the medium and my body. Both in practice and product, they reflect my experience navigating healthcare as a medicalized body — forced to let go of preconceived notions, never knowing what the results may be.

FRANCES BUKOVSKY

BIO

Frances Bukovsky makes photographs about chronic illness, disability, and queerness in the context of selfhood, relationships, and medical experiences. They utilize self portraiture, documentary photography, and camera-less processes to explore their dynamic and fluid experience of both illness and gender identity.

Bukovsky earned a BFA with honors in photography and imaging from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2018. Since then, they have been published internationally for their work on chronic illness and included in numerous group shows along the east coast. 

Besides their artistic practice, Bukovsky is a freelance photographer and photography instructor located near Asheville, NC.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I had a medically necessary hysterectomy when I was 23 after years of misinformed medical treatment. While I recovered, I came out as trans non-binary and started creating self portraiture to explore the newfound acceptance of self that I discovered post-surgery. Photography became integral in my healing process as I used both documentation and symbolism to navigate the turbulent emotions that I was experiencing.

The resulting project, Vessel, exists within this personal context with the goal of creating space to discuss reproductive health and the challenges associated with accessing comprehensive, informed healthcare for people with a uterus.

SUGANDHA GUPTA

BIO
Sugandha Gupta is a textile artist, designer, and educator. She creates sensory textiles that include a wider audience through their senses. Her pieces are reflective of her identity as a disabled woman, inviting audiences to explore through sensory engagement. Her research interests lie at the intersections of inclusive practices, sustainability, and meaning making through textiles and wearables. Gupta’s disability advocacy at museums, schools, and universities redefines disabilities as opportunities and strengths. Her work has been presented at the Smithsonian Craft Show, Hunterdon Art Museum, and Disability Unite Festival. She has won prestigious awards such as the Dorothy Waxman Textile Prize, and the International Design Award.

ARTIST STATEMENT
Born without color in a country of vibrant colors, and visually-impaired in a world dominated by visuals, I draw from my experiences as a person with Albinism from India — to build a vocabulary of textures, aromas, and sensations. I rely on touch and sound to create access. Creating through my senses transformed my work. It aided a new perspective of experiencing the world through an intentional use of senses.

I transform materials such as wool, paper, rope, silk, and banana fibers to create shapes and textures. These sensory-textiles encourage audiences to engage through their senses of touch, sound, smell, and sight. My work aims to bridge the gaps between the mainstream and disabled community. 

JAKLIN ROMINE

BIO

Jaklin Romine has been working professionally since 2015, exhibiting in multiple group exhibitions across Los Angeles and New York. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Hyperallergic, Curate LA, KCET, and on the cover, centerfold, and contributor of Full Blede and X-TRA. In 2019, she won the Rema Hort Foundation’s Emerging Artist Grant, which assisted her in creating her first solo show, Why Bring Me Flowers When I’m Dead? When You Had The Time To Do It When I Was Alive/Living With SCI, PSLA, Los Angeles, California. Romine also created a zine from her photographic work. She is currently working on new photographic and installation work with artist Ginger Quintanilla (Ginger Q).

ARTIST STATEMENT
ACCESS DENIED is a working project that deals with inaccessible art spaces around Los Angeles. I am a physically disabled person who has been going to art shows for over 10 years. I have experienced many instances of inaccessibility. After so much exclusion, I could no longer ignore my experience. I decided to make work about my denied access — going to an opening or closing of a show that I’d been invited to, or that I’d seen on social media, or that I had known was inaccessible from prior experience. I would sit outside the gallery and document my performance with help from friends and strangers using video and photos to tell my story. 

RA WALDEN

BIO / ARTIST STATEMENT

RA Walden is a transdisciplinary artist whose work centers a queer, disabled perspective on the fragility of the body. Their practice spans sculpture, installation, video, and printed matter — all of which is undertaken with a socially engaged and research-led working methodology. Walden is interested in our ability and failure to navigate physicality, interdependency, and vulnerability both communally and individually — understanding world-building not as a visionary tool for an imagined future, but as an embodied methodology for the now. They will be in residence at La Becque: Switzerland in 2022. In 2023, Walden will present a solo exhibition at Storm King Arts Center: NYC.