Review: Access All Areas
Introduction
Debbe Caulfield writes about two in-your-face live-art performance-installations from the Access All Areas event on 4-5 March 2011 at Club Row Gallery, London
Noemi Lakmaier 'Undress/ Redress' (c) Noemi Lakmaier
Hosted by the Live Art Development Agency, Access All Areas was a two-day public programme, a showcase and inquiry into the work of disabled artists whose medium is Live Art, where the artist’s most important piece of kit is their own body.
Often described as radical and provocative, Live Art is literally in-your-face. As a newcomer to the genre, though not to disability rights work, for me Live Art is arguably the most effective way to engage with audiences on some of the trickier aspects and interpretations of disability; the real, deeper stuff.
Judging by the examples at Access All Areas, there is no room for sentimentality or politics in Live Art; it’s uncompromising and confrontational. Here, disabled people aren't seeking permission to be themselves in front of you, all over the place, they're insisting on it. You have no choice. Get used to it.
Did I enjoy it? Was I meant to? I'm not saying it was a comfortable or comforting experience, or that the artists were a mere bunch of exhibitionists; far from it. Serious matters were dealt with seriously and intelligently. This is what happened…
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