Drawing as Performance and Disability Praxis

Sam Metz

In sharing my drawing as stimming work I have been developing the drawings as notation for performance. It is important that these performances are not seen as voyeuristic, but instead ways of re-framing the experiences of my tics from Tourette’s and the stimming that I do. These behaviours are viewed as a deficit and can in the UK lead to harm from both the society and the state meaning that many autistic adults mask these behaviours.

In my work it is important for me to be authentically disability-led and that my work adheres to a social model of disability. I am passionate about the social model of disability; alternative communication can be seen as a lesser alternative for verbal communication whereas my work seeks to show that this is not inevitable but rather a societal construct based on ableist norms. In contrast my drawing as stimming performances project investigate non-verbal communication as equal to and as rich and complex as traditional verbal communication.

The images in this post are from a series of domestic tiles which each have separate drawings on. In March, at the start of the pandemic I was due to have a residency which would have involved creating a dance performance with others using the drawings on the tiles as notation (using the lines to inspire and sequence movements). This hasn’t happened but it has allowed me to think more about what sharing the drawing means and what performing them means in relation to disability art particularly in a time of physical separation.

Thumbnail image by Guerrilla Art Lab