Louise Westerhout

FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg. Multimedia solo piece entitled Capitalist Machine. Curated by Dr Brenton Maart, Dr Leora Farber-Blackbeard

https://www.viad.co.za/imminent-and-eminent-ecologies-bda

I bring the intimate experience of disability, medical interventions and recovery into art form. I’m fascinated by the sociopolitical potential of this research which supports, expands and archives, breaking tropes and challenging the assumed monolith of disabled experience. 

My performance work subverts ableist narratives, suggesting new paradigms of viewing and understanding a queer, disabled, older body and its relationship to patriarchy, ableism etc. I pull tight focus on singular stories from my lived experience, but also from other disabled persons and trauma survivors, analysing them through the lens of critical theory to expose the cognitive dissonance around cancer, disability and our own mortality. In return for being labelled with diagnoses and prognoses I have no control over, as they belong to an unassailable canon of western patriarchal medical science, I offer nuanced diagnoses, on the personal, but also the socio-cultural pathologies which perpetuate physical and also mental illness, such as ableism, misogyny, ageism and queer phobia. 

As a performer I invite the witness’ gaze, subverting the ableist stare, exposing prejudice, demanding that the witness looks, that they see a body which holds autonomy. As a therapist and educator in the field of conflict resolution and transformative justice, I wish to broaden queer Crip culture and create a haven for disabled people who find allyship, validation and recognition within my research, and be part of the creation of new communities based on equality, decolonised and posthuman theory. 

Review: https://mg.co.za/friday/2024-10-04-im-not-someone-you-can-pity/

View work: https://www.instagram.com/capitalist.machine?igsh=YWVqc2hqa3Rza3Bv