The work of (creating) art: Judith scott's fiber art, Lola Barrera and Iñaki Peñafiel's ¿quétienes debajo del sombrero? (2006) and the challenges faced by people with developmental disabilities

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7 Scopus citations

Abstract

While engaging the process of artistic creation at the Creative Growth Art Center (CGAC) in San Francisco, California, Judith Scott produced numerous enigmatic three-dimensional fiber and mixed media sculpture pieces that subsequently received international attention. Approaching Scott's life and art from the perspective of Disability Studies - understood as an expressly political project - takes us beyond the limitations of the label of Art Brut/Outsider Art and of questions of artistic communication to properly situate her activities at the CGAC as work in both a social and economic sense. Judith's story - and her representation in a recent Spanish documentary film by directors Lola Barrera and Peñafiel - suggests that in aspiring to achieve greater social and economic inclusion for such marginalized populations we must challenge the pervasive clinical paradigm that frames disability as lack and go further by cultivating sustainable, meaningful work experiences, such as that offered by the CGAC to people with developmental disabilities. Ultimately, creating art has the potential to be such a form of meaningful work.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)508-532
Number of pages25
JournalCultural Studies
Volume24
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2010

Keywords

  • Deafness
  • Disability studies
  • Down syndrome
  • Judith scott (1943 2005)
  • Outsider art

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Anthropology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • General Social Sciences

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