The Disabled Avant-Garde Today!
8th September 2006 - 22nd October 2006
A collaborative exhibition by Katherine Araniello and Aaron Williamson, The Disabled Avant-Garde Today! pays homage to some of the formative and unexpected influences on Araniello and Williamson's 'disability art'. Presenting a number of new video works and also paintings, the exhibition will revisit the work of such practitioners as Leigh Bowery, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tom & Jerry, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Simon & Garfunkel, Martin Kippenberger and Busby Berkeley.
Produced with a cutting wit and humour, the works presented within the exhibition often border on absurdity in their attempt to pay homage to their heroes. In their Leigh Bowery video tribute, for example, the Disabled Avant-Garde (Araniello & Williamson) dress up in the monstrously glam style of Bowery and spend an evening at home staying up really late watching videos of their hero whilst sipping Cava and smoking fags. In their tribute to Tom & Jerry they take on the roles of the warring cat and mouse. They enact a hilarious chase through a house complete with cartoon furniture whilst attacking each other with pots and pans. This no-holds-barred romp contrasts notably with the often kid-gloved treatment of disabled people in real life.
