"Hospital Aesthetics: Disability, Medicine, Activism" | Book Launch & Lecture with Amanda Cachia

Oct 16 | 6 p.m. | Grant Street Studios & Zoom

Hospital Aesthetics: Disability, Medicine, Activism argues that contemporary disabled artists are offering a new hospital aesthetics, where health and care are being taken into their own hands and body-minds. Hospital aesthetics is defined as artwork that explores the ever-subjective experience of illness, set apart from and outside of a clinical or therapeutic setting, and in opposition to the medical model of disability. The author examines the work of nine contemporary disabled artists and four care collectives from the United States, Canada and Europe across five chapters, utilizing a range of mediums, including drawing, sculpture, installation, painting, performance, video and socially engaged art practice, to illustrate "hospital aesthetics."

The talk will be followed by a conversation with Charles Eppley, Assistant Teaching Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts & Performance and Program Lead, Disability Studies B.A.

Biography

Amanda Cachia has an established career profile as a curator, consultant, writer and art historian who specializes in disability art activism and crip curatorial practices. She is Professor of Practice in Museum Studies in the School of Art at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. Cachia is the author of Hospital Aesthetics: Disability, Medicine, Activism (forthcoming 2025), and The Agency of Access: Contemporary Disability Art and Institutional Critique (2024). She is also editor of Curating Access: Disability Art Activism and Creative Accommodation (2022), which includes over 40 international contributors.

ASL interpretation will be provided on Zoom, sponsored by the NYU Center for Disability Studies.