Comrades (Midlands) with Outside In x EXPLORERS project.





Comrades from Midlands - 3 ways of imagining disability activism
Find out more here.

Comrades is a collective of neurodiverse and disabled artists across England. We formed after we all met at Documenta, an international arts quinquennial that takes place in Kassel, German. We supported each other throughout the week we spent there. By focusing on our creative practices Comrades creates a creative space where making and existing as an artist can be discussed alongside accessibility.  The artists in Comrades strive  to learn from each other and grow together. Artists include: Anahita Harding, Anna Farley, Ashokkumar Mistry, Daniel Norie, Gerald Curtis, Jasmine Moreton, Kyla Harris, Poppy Nash, Roo Dhissou and Sonia Boué.

This zine compiled by Comrades consists of three contributions from Midlands based artists who form part of the wider collective. Through a mixture of editorial, poems and illustrations, Ashokkumar attempts to understand the necessity of activism for disabled artists. Jasmine explores quiet forms of activism using fingerspelling (British Sign Language) with reference to Tony Heaton’s “Smile Fuck” artwork. Roo invites us to imagine what our own access documents could look like and how we choose or choose not to communicate our needs to institutions. 

The zine acts as a document that dissects creative activism from different perspectives and provides a focus of discussion and a safe space where it can be understood and discussed. Zines are DIY in their very nature, nothing needs to be accurate or referenced and this makes for an exciting area where our knowledge is the knowledge, platforming lived experiences of real people. We understand that there is no one way of defining creative activism however through our zine we hope we will inspire other D/deaf Disabled and ND artists to understand how they can explore and embrace their own definition of activism.



Jazz Moreton is an artist whose public, interdisciplinary practice is currently focussed on the creation and production of zines. She is interested in communication; quiet, lawful forms of activism; and the never-ending fight for- in her case, disability- equality. Her personal practice, which includes mending and making as forms of activism, is one born out of necessity and a desire to improve the future by consuming less.

www.jazzmoreton.com



The predominant locus of Ashokkumar Mistry’s protean practice is anti-fascism. As a Neurodivergent, artist, writer, researcher, activist & curator Mistry subverts technologies, ideologies and challenges conventional ways of making & viewing art.

Mistry’s research scrutinises differences to expand our understanding of the human condition that includes impairment and disability as part of the entirety of the human condition.  His work is dialogic; encouraging interaction and debate. In an economy of inattentive distraction, his work asks us to pay close attention. By working against the insistence for consistent and reducible product, Mistry issues a challenge to cultural institutions and actively seeks to reshape expectations.