Project 1, Compassion Posters for Introductory Studio Spring 2023
Medium: Collaged Images
This project focused on making two posters that called for compassion toward a specific group or cause to a group that may not know or has compassion for them.
This topic was easy for me to focus on as a person who is disabled and has dealt with ableism my whole life. I wanted each poster to focus on specific types of ableism. The first, “Talking at does not equal Talking To”, focuses on the tendency for neurotypical and able-bodied people to talk at disabled people without talking to them. It involves a lot of criticism and advice that wasn’t asked for or needed, or forced opinions that advocate direct harm. I utilized yelling faces and imagery that conveys common themes of these types of “Talking At” I used red transparent paper to show it attacking the center person, who has various disabilities, like neurological issues, spinal, heart, and lung disability.
The second poster focuses on the barriers that many of us face being disabled. Able-bodied people don’t have to think about how marriage, education, healthcare, housing, and transportation are all set up for able-bodied people. I used a reference to “Christina’s World” by Andrew Wyeth, as it’s always been such an impactful piece to me as a person who’s losing mobility since I was a child.
I hope both posters make able-bodied people pause for a moment and ask what they can do to help, or maybe just recognize that the world looks very different for those of us who aren’t included in it.
To learn more about how to stop ableism, please visit StopAbleism.org
