November 5, 2016 - 07:16
I really enjoyed the Riva and Rosemarie conversation in the art gallery. I think it's a whole different experience viewing portraits in person than on the internet. The richness of her portraits and the means with which she draws them can really only be captured in person. I also didn't realize that some of them have 3D aspects, which is really neat! I also really enjoyed the conversation that Rosemarie started about how the placement of the portraits in a place of transit in an esteemed college library. Riva goes on to talk about how depending on where you live, the definition of humanity can be really small, for example where she grew up in Cincinati. And I love the use of her word "elasticity" to describe humanity to include the disabled and many other people.
I think there are different fights that different people with different disabilities are fighting. Although disabled people are all trying to live as a nonvisual or disabled body in a visual and able-bodied world, for example in deaf jams, deaf people have trouble communicating with the hearing world, whereas people in wheelchairs have trouble accessing public spaces. So I think the different accomodations that these groups need, separate their fights, when they should also be uniting to fight together, since together they make up a huge portion of the population. Together they have a stronger voice and a better chance at changing the minds of the non-disabled. I think they work that we are reading and viewing is how they can best fight for themselves. They must use their voices to interject into mainstream pop culture. So I think they should continue to produce books and artwork to spread the word.