From identity politics to dismodernism? Changes in the social meaning of disability art

Art has gained an important position in the identity politics of the disability movement. The article sheds light on how disabled artists enact their positions as disabled and as artists. In a qualitative survey, a total of 30 artists affiliated with the disability arts movement in the United Kingdom and United States were interviewed. Most believe that disability art has developed in two phases. The first phase is closely related to the emerging disability rights movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The idea of the present situation as a second phase of disability art is characterized by artists wanting to perform and to exhibit for a mainstream audience, and by a combination of disability issues and non-disability issues. These changes in the social field of disability art seem to be structured by the disputed identity politics of the disability movement