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We Are Invisible We Are Visible (2022) This commission from disabled-led arts organisation DASH brought together 31 artists who are d/Deaf, Disabled or Neurodivergent. Spanning 30 galleries in the Plus Tate network across the UK, the artists created and executed interventions based on Dada / Surrealism / Disability on 2 July 2022 — the 102nd anniversary of the first international Dada art fair in Berlin. To date, it was the largest showcase of work by d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists ever to be presented in the UK. |
Stav's intervention, titled Strange Beauty, took place at the Arnolfini in Bristol. Layering surrealism, body dysmorphia, patriarchal expectations and phenomenology, this work sought to challenge people's ideas of western beauty standards by asking them to make the artist a living, breathing embodiment of surrealist artwork.
Strange Beauty was inspired by photos of Barbette, a legendary gender-bending trapeze artist, captured by Surrealist Jewish photographer Man Ray. Stav created collages of Barbette’s historic pictures with photos of their own disabled, queer body. Reducing themself to disembodied bits, Stav contrasts Barbette’s perfect demure femininity - as captured through the lenses of Jewish artists - with their own hairy, veiny, fat, cellulite-ridden body parts, captured through the lens of their Jewish gaze.
When asked why he created his act, Barbette replied: “I wanted an act that would be a thing of beauty—of course, it would have to be a strange beauty”; and what is surrealism if not Strange Beauty? Are queer, disabled and neurodivergent bodies an expression of a strange beauty, not quite matching up to society's rigid boxes of what beauty is? Barbette, in her act of gender fuckery, fluctuating between masculinity and femininity, wanted to be Strange Beauty incarnate — could I be, too?
Strange Beauty was inspired by photos of Barbette, a legendary gender-bending trapeze artist, captured by Surrealist Jewish photographer Man Ray. Stav created collages of Barbette’s historic pictures with photos of their own disabled, queer body. Reducing themself to disembodied bits, Stav contrasts Barbette’s perfect demure femininity - as captured through the lenses of Jewish artists - with their own hairy, veiny, fat, cellulite-ridden body parts, captured through the lens of their Jewish gaze.
When asked why he created his act, Barbette replied: “I wanted an act that would be a thing of beauty—of course, it would have to be a strange beauty”; and what is surrealism if not Strange Beauty? Are queer, disabled and neurodivergent bodies an expression of a strange beauty, not quite matching up to society's rigid boxes of what beauty is? Barbette, in her act of gender fuckery, fluctuating between masculinity and femininity, wanted to be Strange Beauty incarnate — could I be, too?
To learn more about Stav's intervention and the entire WAIWAV project click here.
Photos by John Morgan Photography
Collage works by Stav Meishar, using photos of Barbette by Man Ray and Madame d'Ora and photos of Meishar by Asaf Sagi
