Feb. 5 Abolitionist Practices: Disability and Access; Iarlaith Ní Fheorais
Theory Stairs, 2:00-3:30 PM; moderator Menko Dijksterhuis
This talk will highlight the practices of artists working through questions arising from the carceral through the lens of disability justice. Asking how might disability make one more vulnerable to incarceration, how capital profits from state violence as a debilitating force and how disability justice can critically inform abolitionist politics. Many of these artists engage with the tools and aesthetics of access to critically examine carceral systems or have a lived experience of medical incarceration, such as Donald Rodney, Caroyln Lazard, Sarah Browne, Lorenza Böttner, Mel Braggs, Sins Invalid, and J.J. Beegan. Therefore this talk will raise the question of access as a critical tool in contextualising these practices and the key activist and academic voices that underpin this approach.
Iarlaith Ní Fheorais is a curator, writer and artist and the author of the free online resource Access Toolkit for Artworkers. She is an Independent Producer at field:arts, working with artists Bridget O’Gorman, Ebun Sodipo and Lyónn Wolf. She has previously curated the 21st edition of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Speech Sounds as Curator-in-Residence of VISUAL Carlow. As a writer, she has written for publications including Frieze, Burlington Contemporary, Viscose Journal, Paper Visual aArt and Girls Like Us. She regularly contributes towards public programmes and lectures including at Somerset House, KW Institute, Konstfack University, Royal College of Art and Arts and Disability Ireland. She has sat on numerous selection panels including EVA Platform Commision 2025, Unlimited International Open Award and Edinburgh Arts Festival Platform 2023.