Why can’t an obscure disabled artist represent Britain at the Venice Biennale? Too many visual arts decisions are being driven by a celebrity culture based on commercial values, says Ashokkumar Mistry.
Yes, some may call me notorious for my views but not prolific for my art. One thing that has always stood in my way is the concept of celebrity. A murky world of making your face fit that I have never understood. I’ve heard suggestions that the process of celebrity is natural but if you’ve ever seen how the public relations world operates, you will know that this argument is not true.
I often joke that I’m constantly emerging, like a dandelion at the edge of a flowerbed, always looking in, but never cultivated. I wanted to understand why I was seen as an interloper while others were accepted. I felt I needed to understand why I was still going for emerging artist opportunities for so long.
I and many other artists have been left feeling like Yosser Hughes from Alan Bleasdale’s ‘Boys from the black stuff’ as they have approached arts institutions that have seen them as gauche and out of their league. So a question to British Council: Why can’t an obscure disabled artist represent Britain at the Venice Biennale?... Keep reading on Disability Arts Online
Yes, some may call me notorious for my views but not prolific for my art. One thing that has always stood in my way is the concept of celebrity. A murky world of making your face fit that I have never understood. I’ve heard suggestions that the process of celebrity is natural but if you’ve ever seen how the public relations world operates, you will know that this argument is not true.
I often joke that I’m constantly emerging, like a dandelion at the edge of a flowerbed, always looking in, but never cultivated. I wanted to understand why I was seen as an interloper while others were accepted. I felt I needed to understand why I was still going for emerging artist opportunities for so long.
I and many other artists have been left feeling like Yosser Hughes from Alan Bleasdale’s ‘Boys from the black stuff’ as they have approached arts institutions that have seen them as gauche and out of their league. So a question to British Council: Why can’t an obscure disabled artist represent Britain at the Venice Biennale?... Keep reading on Disability Arts Online