Shortlists offer thematic selections from AAA Collections, including overviews and annotations by invited contributors. The following shortlist by Siu Wan Chi offers an entry point to Disability Arts in Asia and beyond.
Discourse on disability thus far has focused on providing medical definitions and social welfare, such as equal opportunities for people with disability in terms of education, employment, and accessibility. Since the 1970s, more complex and interdisciplinary approaches to Disability Studies have explored the history and lived experiences of those with disabilities, where Disability Arts has emerged as both a movement and a theme. Increasingly, artists, collectives, and curators in Europe, the USA, and Canada are producing artwork and exhibitions about disability. Notable recent exhibitions include Crip Arte Spazio: The DAM in Venice at the 2024 Venice Biennale and CRIP TIME at the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, in 2022. In Asia, while there are a number of disabled artists and activists working to diversify the range of material on disability in the arts, this area remains an emerging field within academic discourse.
In 2023, AAA’s Try Try Zine Residency participant Liu Nanxi hosted a discussion centred on accessibility and Disability Arts with Clayton Lo. As AAA’s Senior Librarian, I felt a strong urge to enrich our offerings and provide valuable resources for researchers in Disability Studies and anyone wanting to deepen their understanding of this important topic. There is a pressing need for more resources to facilitate dialogue on Disability Arts.
In this shortlist, Disability Arts is used as an umbrella term for all relevant, yet variant definitions and concepts of Disability Arts—including art created by disabled artists, works that reflect the identities and experiences of disabled individuals (i.e., Crip Art), and Inclusive Art, which emphasises the participation of people with disabilities. The term also refers to arts that relate to people with physical, mental, or learning disabilities; neurodivergence; and chronic diseases.
To present a diverse perspective on Disability Arts, this shortlist includes a range of publications and materials. A significant portion consists of reference readings that explore the theory, history, and development of Disability culture. Some catalogues are also selected to introduce notable group exhibitions that explore tactile elements including ‘Please Touch’ Art Exhibition (Hong Kong, 1986) and Behind the Eyeballs (Hong Kong, 2000); as well as exhibitions featuring Crip artists such as The People with Stories: The 1st Creation and New Talent Awards of Luminance Art Space (Taiwan, 2010) and Crip: An Exhibition (Hong Kong, 2024). This shortlist also covers monographs and introduces artists with varying forms of disabilities who have achieved significant recognition across various media, including painting, sculpture, performance art, installation, and poetry.
As our library is based in Hong Kong, this shortlist features more materials from Hong Kong compared to other parts of Asia, reflecting our stronger ties to organisations and publishers that promote Disability Arts in our home city. At the same time, we are actively working to build networks with more inclusive and accessible arts communities across different parts of Asia, aiming to provide a more geographically diverse collection of Disability Arts in the near future.
While this shortlist does not include all materials related to Disability Arts available at AAA, it highlights a selection of significant resources and artists as entry points for users to engage with the subject and community. We encourage users to explore our library for further insights.
Reference
The Disabled and Art Activities: Equal Opportunities and Aspirations (Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong, 2001). [REF.ADA3]
Robert McRuer, Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability (New York: New York University Press, 2006). [REF.MCR2]
This book explores challenges and forms of oppression shared by both disabled and queer communities. Through various case studies, the author argues that the system of compulsory able-bodiedness and the ideologies surrounding rehabilitation in a capitalist society oppress disabled individuals in the same way that compulsory heterosexuality oppresses queer individuals. Rather than promoting the inclusiveness often advocated by ableist perspectives, the author emphasises the distinct identities and experiences of these communities. This approach has pushed the Disability Arts Movement forward, inspiring many Crip artists like those participating in CRIP TIME and Crip: An Exhibition to “come out” and approach art from a perspective that focuses on specific Disability experiences and embodiments. These experiences can be about the difficulties they have encountered but also touch on desire, sex, and pleasure.
Guo Haiping and Wang Yu, Demented Art: Report on Chinese Mental Patients’ Art (Changsha: Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, 2007). [REF.GHP2]
Art Therapy and Outsider Art (or Art Brut) are distinct fields, yet they play significant roles within the context of Disability Arts. Similar to the idea of Inclusive Arts, Outsider Art emphasises the engagement of individuals with disabilities in the artistic process, particularly those with mental and learning disabilities who often lack opportunities to explore art. Guo Haiping, artist and founder of the Nanjing Outsider Art Studio, documented his behavioural experiment living in the Nanjing Zutangshan Mental Hospital in this book. Over three months, he engaged patients by teaching painting and pottery as a means of therapy and self-expression. Guo observed and meticulously recorded each participant’s medical history, symptoms, creative process, and the transformations they experienced after engaging in artistic activities. Through his interactions with these patients, Guo felt the transformative power of art. Despite their struggles with mental health issues and the effects of medication, each patient yearned to express themselves and be understood through art, revealing their sensitive and vibrant inner worlds.
Alice Fox and Hannah Macpherson, Inclusive Arts Practice and Research: A Critical Manifesto (New York: Routledge, 2015). [REF.FOA5]
Another Way of Seeing: A 20th Anniversary Anthology (Seoul: Another Way of Seeing, 2016). [E-book]
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018). [REF.PSL2]
A thought-provoking book about disability justice by Crip writer, activist, and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. She challenges many ableist assumptions about care and access by sharing her personal experiences and struggles in various contexts. The book offers practical tips and insights about how to take care of the physical, mental, and emotional needs of disabled individuals, whether for oneself or others. For example, the chapter “Chronically Ill Touring Artist Pro Tips” provides helpful guidance to Crip artists, performers, and lecturers who live with chronic illnesses and need to travel around. Piepzna-Samarasinha redefines care and access, arguing that they should not be confined to a self-care model where disabled people are passive recipients. Instead, she envisions a future of collective care and mutual aid created by people of all bodies, neurotypes, genders, and backgrounds.
John Derby and Alice Wexler, eds., Contemporary Art and Disability Studies (New York: Routledge, 2020). [REF.WEA3]
Shayda Kafai, Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice and Art Activism of Sins Invalid (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021). [REF.KAS13]
Clayton Lo, A Brief History of Touch Art in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Centre for Community Cultural Development, 2021). [REF.LOC3]
Written by Clayton Lo, a visually impaired artist and researcher, this book introduces the development of Touch Art in Hong Kong, an art form that emphasises tactility over the visual. The book is published by Centre for Community Cultural Development (CCCD), an organisation that has been promoting Touch Art through the Hong Kong Touch Art Festival since 2013. Long recognised as a medium within the art world and the general public, Touch Art exhibitions include the Hong Kong Touch Art Festival (2013–) and Behind the Eyeballs (1a space, 2000). Differentiating between art that “can be touched” and that which is “made to be touched,” Lo argues that there should be more kinds of Touch Art created purely for the congenitally blind to experience through smell, sound, and texture.
Mara Mills and Rebecca Sanchez, eds., Crip Authorship: Disability as Method (New York: New York University Press, 2023). [REF.MIM7]
Exhibition Catalogues
Festival of Arts with the Disabled 1986 (Hong Kong: Festival of Arts with the Disabled, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 1986). [Ha Bik Chuen Archive]
The catalogue for Hong Kong Festival of Arts with the Disabled (1986) documents the inaugural art festival in Hong Kong held specifically for people with disabilities, a collaborative effort between the arts and rehabilitation sectors. The festival aimed to help both able-bodied and disabled individuals explore and develop their creative abilities by providing opportunities to work together across various artistic disciplines. Additionally, the festival sought to encourage the general public to appreciate the talents of people with disabilities and integrate them more fully into their daily lives.
'Please Touch' Art Exhibition (Hong Kong: Festival of Arts with the Disabled, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 1986). [EXS.HGK.PTA]
Behind the Eyeballs (Hong Kong: 1a space, 2000). [EXS.HGK.BEE]
This catalogue was published for the exhibition Behind the Eyeballs, curated by Choi Yan Chi and Ngan Suk-fun at Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre in 2000. Participating artists include Lam Laam, Lam Wai Kit, Luk Suk Yuen, Wong Kwok Choi, and visually impaired artist Ricky Tse. As the first contemporary exhibition in Hong Kong to explore non-visual elements, the curators challenged the typical exhibition convention of prioritising sight over touch. Instead, audiences were invited to wear blindfolds to navigate the space, experiencing the artworks through smell, sound, and texture, thereby gaining insight into how visually impaired individuals might interact and communicate with the world around them.
Meet Light: The 8th Creation Award of Luminance Art Space (2023) (Taichung: Arts Development Association of Taiwan with Disabilities, 2010). [EX.TAI.LAS.2023]
Luminance Art Space is an exhibition space run by the Arts Development Association of Taiwan with Disabilities that provides a platform for people with disabilities and special needs to demonstrate their art talents. This catalogues the 2023 exhibition of the annual Creation Award of Luminance Art Space, held since 2010 to encourage and inspire disabled artists. It features a self-introduction and statement from each awarded artist that provides insight into their experience and how art has transformed their lives. Compared to the inaugural exhibition, the award not only includes artists with physical disabilities, but also those with autism, schizophrenia, Asperger syndrome, and intellectual disabilities. Such a shift may imply how art has become an important form of therapy and education for neurodivergent people. Catalogues of other exhibitions held by Luminance Art Space are available here.
c.95d8, ed., Crip: An Exhibition (Hong Kong: c.95d8, 2024). [ZIN.CNF]
This catalogue and zine set was published in conjunction with Crip: An Exhibition, organised by c.95d8 at Eaton Hotel, Hong Kong in 2024. c.95d8 is an art collective focused on Crip issues and initiated the Crip Art Residency. Instead of focusing on the disabilities and limitations of Crip artists, the exhibition and residency aimed to remove existing barriers imposed by disabilities, and reclaim Crip as a unique and powerful identity. On one side of the zine, a doodle-style graph captures random thoughts, experiences, and relevant words related to the Crip residency, while the other side introduces each participating artist. Through their varied experiences with different disabilities, the artists pose questions such as “what is pain?” and “what is communication?” to encourage us to think outside the limitations of ableism and explore alternative potentials for feelings and actions.
Artist Monographs
Chiu Wai Yee, and Yue Dan, eds., Tong King Sum (Hong Kong: Four Seasons Publishing Company, 2010). [MON.TKS]
Chng Seok Tin, Chng Seok Tin: Sounds of Vermont (Singapore: Art-2 Gallery, 2004). [MONS.CST2]
Shefalee Jain, Painting Dis-ease (self-published, 2023). [E-book]
Shefalee Jain is an artist and educator based in New Delhi. Her first solo exhibition, Painting Dis-ease, was held at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University of Baroda, India, in 2012. Much of her work and research explores how people perceive and define the “normal body,” disability, and disease. Jain critiques modern medical imagery that often presents patients and illnesses in a frightening manner, contributing to the prejudice and segregation of individuals with different bodies. In this exhibition, she illustrates disease as a source of beauty, such as in Drawings for The Garden of Delights, where subjects are depicted scratching their inflamed skin in the nude, evoking a sense of rapture. This portrayal of itching as painful yet pleasurable resonates with those suffering from skin diseases and aligns with the focus on unique experiences central to Disability Arts.
Ko Nam, Selected Works of Ko Nam (Hong Kong: Wan Fung Art Gallery, 2000). [MON.KON2]
Lau Wai Ming, The Life and Art of Lau Wai Ming (Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong, 1998). [MON.LWM]
Clayton Lo, Latency (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Company Limited, 2009). [MON.LOC3]
Liu Nanxi, ed., Crip Zine issue 01: How may I address you? (Crip Zine, 2023). [ZIN.LNX]
Liu Nanxi published Crip Zine as part of AAA’s Try Try Zine Residency in 2023. The multifaceted zine casts a series of questions for collective deliberation on the subject of Disability Arts. It brings together different lines of enquiry from Liu’s research in AAA Collections for texts related to Disability Arts, as well as inviting disabled persons of different backgrounds for discussions and events. Through documenting questions and conversations raised during the process of collective creation, Crip Zine is an ongoing series that hopes to open up pathways for understanding. Other issues are available here.
Liu Tung Mui, Liu Tung Mui Paintings Album: True Colours (Hong Kong: Paper House, 2008). [MONL.LTM2]
Shi Jin-Hua, Shi Jin-Hua (Taipei: Mind Set Art Center, 2013). [MON.SJH]
Shi Jin-Hua was a Taiwanese conceptual artist who suffered from Type 1 diabetes, which required him to inject insulin and monitor his health daily from the age of seventeen. Many of his works, such as Imprisonment Series (1986–87) and A Tightrope Walking (1987–88), deal with the fear and frustration caused by his disease, while also providing a spiritual form of meditation. This book showcases his work from the past thirty years, presenting readers with an in-depth view of Shi’s work and his state of being. Believing art to be a way of documenting life, Shi’s work has reflected his life experience, allowing him to ponder social values and consider how they can alleviate pain in the world.
Asia Art Archive, In Between...: Performance by Ricky Tse (Asia Art Archive, 2006). [CDAAA.000377]
This video by visually impaired artist Ricky Tse provides a recording of Tse’s solo performance with improvisations by disabled painter Liu Tung Mui and Frog King at Fringe Club in Hong Kong in 2006. During the performance, he moves around the stage—walking, lying down, and crawling—alternating between moments of vulnerability and hysteria under the spotlight, and times of quiet struggle while wrapped in darkness. Though unspoken, these actions resonate with the mental experience of living with blindness, particularly for someone like Tse, who became blind later in life. One can only imagine the anxiety and struggle he had to go through while gradually losing his vision.
Siu Wan Chi is AAA's Senior Librarian.
Banner image: Pages from Crip Zine issue 01: How may I address you? Courtesy of Liu Nanxi and the artists.